Keys of the of the trump presidency, looking to expand the Community Care programs. The last few months have been implement take that we have seen a handful of headlines that have been problematic for the v. A. There is a doctor in West Virginia that might have killed 13 patients. A patient in atlanta passed away. Some bad headlines. We want to sit down with the secretary to find out where he thinks the v. A. Is. He said are still some words and andlems some warts problems with the v. A. But it is much better than two years ago. It is on a much better path toward being Customer Service friendly. The opinion on capitol hill is different, depending on who youre talking to. Some folks have been excited, some folks are worried about the issues of privatization, just how much of v. A. Is being pushed out. A massive agency, a lot of people dont realize how much of the federal budget they ask 2020, 200al billion. There is watching. It is one where we exceed the budget continue to increase. I asked the secretary if he expected to keep going up and he said yes, there are some responsibilities for us. Host where does the money go to . The nationd to it act, how much money was given for that, how is it supposed to act . What we seen is increased medical appointments, 3 million more medical appointments in fiscal 2019, more doctors, more patients coming in, a lot more expenses there. We have seen the number of disability claims go up and some issues with agent orange, more ptsd claims. These are all things where the money goes up, more veterans are engaging. We have seen a lot of programs in the v. A. Like Suicide Prevention outreach and other outreach programs. All of this money is going in there. We effort from Veterans Service organizations that they could still use more. There is a lot of catching up the department used to do and if we are going to stand up for veterans and give them the resources and support they need and were promised, we need to add more money. The mission act is where the controversy is. If we are allowing more choice for veterans, is this going to skyrocket the budget . I asked the secretary this in the interview. Is within, the money the parameters we expected. We have seen an increase in emergency room care but we expected that and that relieved some cost for the v. A. , the v. A. Is not where you would go for er care. There was a New York Times article talking about the cost and how setting up this network of doctors that can work with v. A. Has been more expensive than anticipated and it might cost tens of millions more to finalize it. The secretary said it was within parameters and he feels it is fine, but we see where it goes. Host what are lawmakers saying . Guest democrats were concerned and very worried about those costs and the issue of does this amount to prime citation . Does this amount to privatization . I spoke to the Senate Veterans chairman who will retire at the end of the year. He said he is thrilled how it is been implemented. He feels everything they anticipated has worked out fine. Proponents say this is as good as we couldve asked for for a new program. Host what does the future look e for Veterans Health care we have seen wars in afghanistan and iraq for decades as we continue to have a presence there . Guest the reality of the numbers is the number of veterans in america is decreasing, even with the new veterans coming out of the service. It is a numbers game. We will see the number of veterans in america shrink. That creates issues about how big the v. A. Should be, where should they be building new hospitals. It doesnt make sense to have massive v. A. Medical camps on the east coast. The v. A. Is struggling with that. One thing the need to do in the next couple of years is to what i call a closing round for v. A. It is the same sort of idea. They decide which facilities are worth keeping open, which might need to be expanded and which would make sense if we cut and shut down, because there are better ways to do this. We have seen a push toward smaller clinics that may be a full hospital but provide Outpatient Services and some inpatient services. We have seen a Community Care push. Dealing with the flu or common cold, too they have to go all the way to v. A. To deal with that . The flipside is if you have a veteran who sprained her ankle and goes in, ive been having trouble sleeping and im coughing a lot, the civilian doctor will say you hurt your ankle, i will fix that. The v. A. Doctor might say i want to talk to you about ptsd just a check. It is a balancing act, it is the v. A. Trying to figure out how to do this. They are revamping medical records electronically. How much will v. A. Doctors be able to communicate with outside doctors . We will see. It is a transformative time for the v. A. If they do it right, if they do it wrong it could be disastrous. Host lets get to our viewers. We have divided the lines by veterans and all others. What are some issues you believe the government needs to address when it comes to our nations veterans. Ken, when did you serve . Caller i got out in 2005. Host go ahead. Toler i served from 1998 2005. I live in washington and there are a lot of veterans in my situation. We are looking for jobs. I dont think there is anything the government has done. They always say they have done stuff to help us get jobs but are still a lot of us like myself. I have been unemployed for going on three years and it is still difficult to find a job. Today is veterans day and im still jobless. Guest the issue of veteran employment is a tricky one. The numbers are lower than the rest of the american population, that is the good news. Areou are a veteran, you slightly more likely to find a job in your civilian peers. But if you cant find a job, it gets really tricky and problematic if you are having trouble explaining what your skills are and how they translate to the civilian world. We hear from a lot of folks, they will get their first job and within one year, they are looking for another one because it was not the perfect fit. We have seen a lot of government programs. There are folks on capitol hill, even with unemployment numbers being lower, there is a worry about, how do we make sure these folks are indigo transition . I have talked to a lot of companies about this. There are more companies setting up internal veterans communities and trying to look at not just the issue of how do we get them in the door but how do we keep them. How do we do this . Be folks whoill cant make the transition, have trouble making the transition and that is where you get into the key v. A. Services, for the folks who cant get it. Are there Unemployment Benefits they can get . There are some and the Trump Administration who have looked at rolling veterans Unemployment Benefits back to save another things. If you dont have a job, Health Care Service will be an issue, he needs a reliable v. A. Or Community Care service to do that. It is one that even as the numbers get better, we see congress trying to keep an ion that. Host carlos in fort lauderdale, florida. Caller i am a first time caller. I have been dealing with cancer for a number of years. It has never let me down. If question i have not heard it was resolved or not, if i ,ant to go to an outside doctor it takes a lot of time to get there. By the time to get there, it is incomplete. I dont know if that is been taken care of. I wanted out whether he spoke to veterans and how they felt about the testimony . I felt he had a job to do. Callstened to the phone and it was not his business to give his opinion publicly. He was not there to do that. There to do that. Guest on the impeachment question, we have heard from both sides. You will find the Veterans Community is just as divided as the rest of the country depending on where they are coming from with their politics. With the health care issue, the gentleman mentioned he has cancer but he enjoys his v. A. Care. We hear that a lot from veterans. Access is the main complaint with the v. A. System, not the actual treatment. For the most part they are happy with the doctors when they could get there. The wait times continue to be a problem at a point of frustration. Im trying to remember the last issue he brought up. Host i think it was those two. Detroit. Caller good morning. Drafted in 1966 and i did two years. I did one year in the states and one overseas. Myame home and they took army identification. I still had four more years with the Service Two Years reserves and two standby. I was wondering, why would they take my id and i still had four years with the service . Draftees have six years to do. Guest im not totally clear on what that might be and what those are. This goes back to the records issues and alter military records. Be folks whoways find a problem work it into these issues. Really, how you can judge the system is how they figure out when there are anomalies and when there are problems that come up. I think the previous caller asked about the issue of records and taking them outside. This gentleman obviously has a records problem. The v. A. Has made efforts to digitize their existing records and they are moving to a new Electronic Medical system which is the same as the dod. This is potentially transformative for both departments. It will probably take another eight to 10 years. We are talking about 12 billion worth of work. At the end of this, if you go to a v. A. Doctor, you can check your last five visits and see exactly where you have been. If you go to an outside doctor, they will be able to see. They will have a note in the file. You will be able to see more of that. I see you complained about having breathing problems, some sleeping problems, i will treat you for your broken ankle but i will send a note here v. A. Dr. They might want to schedule another appointment. While to geta there and in some ways that put the cart before the horse because there always already pushing those folks into private care. How long can a keep track of those two separate lines of medical care. Mary, annsylvania, veteran, would you serve . 1973 toi served in 1978. Host what were you doing . Caller the United States army reserve and i did everything, i kept records, payroll, things like that. E4. Inished up as an my problem is i didnt go overseas to serve. It is not just my problem, we have a lot of army reserve people who live in this area and we have been trying to get id,rds for Something Like ike the man before you who talked about. Understand, even though some of us did not go overseas, why we arent considered just as important, because we did jobs here for guys overseas. Host leo shane. Guest the first thing i would say is absolutely, a veteran is a veteran. Especially among women veterans, and issue you run into a lot. Folks still consider themselves a veteran, i did not see combat, maybe i wont get the services because i dont deserve them. Veteran,rve, you are a the country owes you a debt. It doesnt matter what you did. If you worked in the carpool, that is part of the larger mission. The issue of records is something the v. A. And dod struggled with. We still had the majority of records in v. A. On paper. If you want to see one doctor, you had to carry a big folder around. If you have a lot of medical issues, joint approve your military connected service, military connected disability, you need to carry several hundred pages of records to each appointment with you and hope the doctor has time to look through it. Things get electronically now, it is going on, there has been a lot of success, it is getting better, but there are a lot of veterans from 30 years ago, 40 years ago but have to rely on paper records. A point of frustration and it is a matter of time and money to get it all digitized. Host kenneth in a story a come organ, you are a veteran, as well. Oregon. Th in astoria, say to i would like to my fellow vietnam veterans, welcome home. Not had an easy go of it, like myself, and to the best of you. As far as your guest host, i have a couple of comments i would like to make, if that is all right. Host ok. 1979, i received my disability. Istarted pretty soon after got out of the service. I did six years. Going to our local va hospital for many, many years. Up until the 1990s. Ill fromi got too and aorange and diabetes whole range of medical problems. Then. Ad a program back that is where i can pick a private doctor in my area. I had him for 20 years. The best doctor i ever had in my entire life. He was also a vietnam veteran. He was a colonel and an evac over in vietnam so we had a cool connection. He did a lot of stuff that military doctors do. Room in minor surgery his clinic. He did some minor surgery on me. He checked my red and white blood count. Worked toyou think it be able to access a private doctor . That the point must mark is that the point . Caller i am almost there. I wont take up too much mortar time. The program worked out so good for me. Course, people retire, my doctor retired, left me without a doctor and i had to go searching for a doctor. Clinic on thei north coast of oregon called the northcoast clinic. Change was so horrible and i got so frustrated, probably said some things to the doctor that were not politically correct, i guess you could say, and she fired me. Time, trump became president and i got on this Community Care, which is what they are using now. It goes through an Insurance Company and everything has to be preapproved, you can choose your own doctor, they assign you to a doctor. Even if you dont like the doctor, you are stuck with them. My care, i would say 50 worse than it was when i was on the program. Host do you have a question for leo shane based on what you just said . Iller that is my comment and want to know if he could give me any feedback on why this is. Host we are going to leave it there. Guest it is one of those outside care programs from before. There were seven or eight different Community Care programs that veterans could use to get care from privatesector doctors instead of the v. A. Part of the mission act was to consolidate all these things. Some of them work fine, some veterans had complaints. A lot of them, the providers had complaints about how they were getting paid. Part of the mission act was consolidating this and simplifying it. Unfortunately, when youre getting rid of any program, there will be people who like it and folks who dont like it. It sounds like you got caught in the mix. His doctor retired, it was a shame he lost him, please dont yell at your new doctor. They are trying to help you. I found it very interesting in my coverage over the last 15 years or so, the amount veterans have tried to bring in the Younger Generations and try to make sure the mistakes of the past werent repeated. That is a group that the Younger Generation is looking to and understands they werent welcome home in the same way and there were a lot of issues. I am really glad he threw that welcome home in their and there are a lot of folks who are thinking of all the generations of veterans, were in the past, maybe they werent. Host nancy in nebraska, welcome to the conversation. Caller thank you for taking my call. I would like to appreciate the veterans who are serving. I would also like to make a comment about your comment about a Mission Forward, your guest. A Mission Forward would be the impacts of these continuous wars on the whole population. Universal health care, taking care of human beings within the context of our footprint on the globe would be a useful path forward. Taking care of everybody. Thank you. Guest some of that is state department, some of that is the government looking at the impact. One thing she mentioned in the previous color mentioning his agent orange exposure, we are 50 years away from vietnam and we are still dealing with disability claims from agent orange, still dealing with conditions related to that exposure. For the Younger Generation of , burn pits will be one of those issues. That was a common way to get rid of waste in afghanistan. Huge andhe fires were churning out plumes of toxic smoke over an entire base. What youre hearing from lawmakers is they dont want to 50waiting another 30, 40, years before we start engaging those illnesses. Host what are the side effects . Guest the burn pits were so varied, some of them you are talking about burning office furniture, maybe there was a little varnish that could cause some asthma. Other places, they were throwing batteries, giant industrial waste in there. We have seen all kinds of rare cancers and toxic exposures. I know you will have tara copp on, but is a preview that is one of the v. A. String to grapple with now. What are the next 10, 20 years going to be . , arewill they recognize there commonalities . Are there things we can start addressing immediately . Host i want to point our viewers to usa todays opinion page. Newspapers view is it begs for fresh approaches. A doctor who is the director of the Suicide Prevention task force for Veterans Affairs said they are committed to doing better. Where do things stand with military suicide . Guest it is a frustrating moment because we have seen for the last five years a concerted effort not just from the v. A. And dod but a lot of parts of government to try to lower the number of veteran suicides and we are not seeing results. The number has changed a little bit over the years, your viewers might have heard 22 a day, that was an initial estimate, it got moved to 20 a day. It was not dropped, it was correcting past numbers. Now the v. A. Is using 17 a day, but that is veterans, separating out active duty. The number is still about 20 a day. Whatever number you are hearing, there is not been Real Progress on the issue. You mentioned the task force, this is the president s high level look at government coming together, trying to look at ways to improve the Suicide Prevention program. The hope is they will come up with brandnew ideas, approaches that we have not done. The biggest challenge for v. A. Has been outreach. 20 a day, a little bit more than 60 of those are folks with no regular contact with v. A. Someone is not committing suicide just because of something related to their military service. But, there are special resources for folks. There is a veterans suicide hotline. Emergency Mental Health care. The message from v. A. And folks on the hill, Veterans Service organizations is reach out. It doesnt matter if you have reached up before, there are services here, we want to help. The problem is across all spectrums. Numbers among younger veterans are increasing. Older veterans make up the majority of veterans in the country, so that is the majority of suicides. Problem and something everyone is looking for the solution. Everyone wants to cut down these tragedies. Host south carolina. When and where did you serve . And i i am a vietnam vet to 1984. Om 1971 i want to say one thing. I want to thank president obama, i sent a letter to him, it took me a long time to get my disability, 2013. Outside, i had no problem. I had 18 eyes surgeries. That was an outside doctor. They shut down and now we have a different one. The v. A. Took care of all of that. I appreciate what they did. It was from agent orange. That has not been determined. Guest still a lot of agent orange connected illnesses. Folks in the Veterans Community say they have seen from my fellow veterans die from this. I know it is from toxic exposure. Specifichas stuck to a , we need science to back it up, we need peerreviewed journals to make a ruling on these things. Agent orange continues to be a frustrating legacy for the military and for the vietnam war. 18 surgeries is a lot of surgeries, god bless him for getting through all of that. Hopefully we can move that quicker. He mentioned his disability claims, too. Around when his claim got approved, that was the peak of the backlog of disability claims. 650,000 we were up to that took more than four months to complete. 70,000,w down to around but still a point of frustration for v. A. I saw some president ial candidates jumping back on that now, saying this will be our focus to get this closer to zero. When veterans come in, we should be able to get these claims through on a timely basis. Host i was going to ask you what the 2020 candidates are saying . Saying hegieg is wants to name the first female v. A. Secretary. Guest he came out with a plan today. I got to look at some of it. Out with warren came one a few days ago. She said she wants to cut veteran suicide in half. Zero is the goal we have, but she wants that number of 17 to be cut in half. It is interesting because i dont know how much v. A. Issues swing voters. There is dissatisfaction that the v. A. Is not better but we get to the nittygritty, a lot of folks outside the Veterans Community dont understand the challenges and needs. Weill give a little preview, have been talking to the candidates and in the next few days, i hope to have a lot of their military and Veterans Issues published. Host people should go to militarytimes. Com. Guest we will have that up there. Mayor pete is poking on a level of personal experience. There are only a few veterans in gabbard is tulsi still in the field. It will be interesting to see what he focuses on as opposed to bernie sanders. He is one who talked about the issue of privatization for a while. We have a debate coming up the 20th of this month. I am hoping we will get a lot more Veterans Issues on that. Texas, anis in a veteran, good morning. Thank you for your service. Caller thank you. To 1999. From 1978 happy veterans day to everyone. I have a little story and two questions. I retired in 1989 and thought the v. A. Was for people missing limbs. Problems and my friends said go to the v. A. 70 ays later, i was disabled and 100 unemployable. My two questions i have is i am now old enough where i collect medicare. I have tricare for life and i used to v. A. Am i allowed to do that . Is, everyquestion year during political season, they are talking about people who get a v. A. Check and a military retirement check. They are calling that double dipping and they dont think you are supposed to get both of those. Can you please comment on that . I think i deserve my retirement and if i am disabled, i think i deserve my disability check. Guest on the issue of double dipping, we see this with military benefits and veterans benefits. There are people who say if you are getting one stipend, you should not be pulling from overkill, as well. The Veterans Service groups had been very adamant in their fight. Isy said military retirement something you earned, something youre collecting. That is a separate thing from disability checks. We are seeing a fight right now from a lot of military widows and widowers on offset problems without certain disability and Survivor Benefits claims are paid out. Those are taken away. There are certain ones, as they look at the total, they will cut one benefit in half to make sure it does not go over a certain amount. The point of all that is it is a constant battle from Veterans Group to say, this is not someone taking advantage of the system, this has been earned. There is a big issue that came up in the past about the unemployability benefits that this gentleman talked about. Once you are over 65, should you be able to receive that . You wouldnt necessarily be in the workforce anymore. It could save several billion dollars. Veterans groups say this is money these folks rely on and they need. Question, am i allowed to do this . A lot of it depends on your situation. Make use of those Veterans Service organizations. Folks have experts, people have experts, people who know a lot more than i do and have been doing this longer than i have that can tell you, and walk you through the process. Fellow veterans who want you to get what you deserve. If you dont qualify, they can talk to about other benefits or programs you can qualify for. If you are not a member of one of those groups, it is worth looking into. Host before we let you go, the president of turkey is visiting washington this week. What are the military issues on the table between the u. S. And turkey right now . Obviously syria is at the top of the list, what you expect these two leaders to be talking about . Guest we have u. S. Military bases in turkey. As we are looking at the serious situation and is trump is talking about pulling troops out of the middle east, what does that mean . It is tough to say what those conversations will be. I know what the dod would like those conversations to be, but what the president s priorities are havent always lined up with what the dod is talking about. A lot of folks will be trained to figure out what does this mean. Those existing u. S. Bases and what is the impact, that will be a key issue. What is the situation with the Kurdish Forces . We will see how that plays out. And plenty of Regional Security issues in iran and iraq, they are always at the top of the list. The president has said he wants u. S. Forces out. Whether or not that means u. S. Forces are out of the middle east is a whole another thing, but i would expect the conversation about how does turkey take a larger role in policing the region to be at the top of trumps agenda. Host how does that complicate our relationship with turkey once it was said they have purchased Russian Air Defense systems . Of an advantage does that give russia encountering our technology . The folks up on the hill have been furious about this and have been trying to put certain restrictions and certain limits on how much they can involve turkey. They were a key partner in the f35 production issues. We will see if there is a compromise that could be met. Likesl see if the dod whatever compromise the president comes up with. Host washington journal come alive every day with news and policy issues that impact you. ,oming up Tuesday Morning politico previews the first public impeachment and cruelly hearing this week. Ceo carolcoalition jenkins talks about efforts to ratify the equal rights amendment. Mediaccuracy in president adam gillett shares the Organizations Mission and shares investigative journalism. Atch washington journal live 7 00 eastern Tuesday Morning. Join the discussion. Pence markedt veterans day with a wreathlaying ceremony and keynote remarks at Arlington National cemetery in virginia. He was joined by Veterans Affairs secretary robert wilkie