Veterans voice frustrations

WASILLA — Opinions expressed at a meeting to discuss federal Department of Veterans Affairs health care with Sen. Lisa Murkowski ran the gamut from frustrating to terrifying Wednesday.

One veteran told Murkowski he almost got denied care until he told the doctor’s office he had another form of insurance.

“If it wouldn’t have been for me having Medicare I wouldn’t be here today,” the veteran told the senator.

The loudest comments came from a man who blasted the VA for his father’s death from a treatable urinary tract infection in Sturgis, South Dakota.

“They can go to hell and burn with the worst of them,” he said of the VA.

Murkowski called the meeting in Wasilla because, she said, the area has a lot of veterans and is supposed to be served by a Community Based Outpatient Clinic. Staffing problems there and complaints from veterans prompted Murkowski to call for an investigation into the clinic in a report from the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Some of the veterans seemed baffled by the bureaucracy and by the lack of care they’d received.

“I don’t understand how they don’t take care of veterans,” one man said. “It just confuses me so bad.”

A female veteran testified about the loss of the last permanent doctor at the Wasilla VA clinic.

“Since she’s been gone I’ve been so lost,” she said.

Other complaints included everything from trouble getting medications locally rather than in Anchorage to trouble getting VA records transferred over to facilities like the South central Foundation’s Alaska Native health care facilities that can now also treat veterans.

A Vietnam veteran testified about the changes he’d seen in the system during his time getting VA health care. He said that the relatively new hospital in Anchorage is a beautiful building but it still doesn’t offer the right amount of care.

“I would rather go into a hay barn if I knew that they had the right staff,” he said.

For her part, Sen. Murkowski told veterans that she is working hard on their behalf.

“The efforts that are underway across the country are serious,” she said.

She said that she wants to figure out why a medical facility in a place like Barrow can attract professionals to work far from the amenities of a place like Wasilla, but a clinic on Seward Meridian Parkway cannot. Is it the pay? The caseload?

“We’ve got some other problems that are limiting us,” she said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.