The Promise

2024. The PACT Act. The largest expansion of veterans' healthcare in a generation. Toxic exposure coverage. Expanded eligibility. Streamlined claims processing. The press conferences were bipartisan and enthusiastic. Everybody smiled.

Two years later. Here are the numbers.

The Reality

Average wait time for a new patient primary care appointment at VA facilities: 34 days. That's up from 28 days pre-PACT Act. Average claims processing time for toxic exposure disability claims: 187 days. The target was 125. The backlog of pending claims: 912,000, up 23% from 2024.

What changed? The website. They redesigned the website. New colors. Better navigation. A chatbot that tells you to call the 1-800 number.

Mission failed.

What the Reports Don't Show

I talk to veterans every week. Not through surveys or focus groups — on the phone, at VFW halls, over coffee at the diner off base. Here's what they tell me.

The claims process is designed to exhaust you. Each claim requires documentation that the military never kept or that the veteran was never told to request. Appeals take an average of 4.5 years. And the burden of proof rests entirely on the veteran — the person who served — not on the institution that sent them into harm's way.

One Iraq veteran I spoke with filed a claim for lung damage from burn pit exposure in January 2025. He's still waiting for his initial evaluation appointment. His civilian doctor confirmed the diagnosis. The VA wants its own evaluation. Scheduled for July 2026. Eighteen months from filing to first appointment.

We didn't serve for this.

What Would Fix It

Authorize veterans to use any accredited healthcare provider and bill the VA directly. Eliminate the requirement for VA-specific evaluations when civilian medical documentation exists. Set binding deadlines for claims processing — 90 days, with automatic approval if the deadline is missed. And fire the administrators who treat wait-time targets as suggestions.

I buried friends for this country. The least this country can do is process their survivors' claims before their children graduate college.

The VA doesn't need another reform bill. It needs accountability. The kind that comes with consequences.

Stand by for nothing. That's what we've been doing for two years.