Veterans in the Bay Area protest changes to the VA health care system

For decades, veterans' benefits were considered politically sacred.  But as the first year of the Trump administration unfolded, many Bay Area veterans were shocked by efforts to slash the workforce of the VA medical system.  

Now, it appears that thousands of vacancies will become permanent, and on Wednesday, advocates protested in San Francisco over what they consider a broken promise.

They gathered outside the Veterans Administration hospital in San Francisco, healthcare workers and their veteran patients, protesting a plan to eliminate thousands of unfilled positions in the VA healthcare system. 

"We know it's reckless," said hospital worker and union president Mark Smith. "It's a betrayal of the promise made to American veterans. And we won't stand for it!"

At issue is an announcement in December that the Veterans Health Administration was undergoing a "reorganization."  In it, VA Secretary Doug Collins said, "The current VHA leadership structure is riddled with redundancies that slow decision making, sow confusion and create competing priorities. In other words, when everyone's in charge of everything, no one's in charge of anything."  

Part of the VA's plan is to eliminate about 25,000 positions that have been left empty, whether from retirement or normal attrition, during a year-long federal hiring freeze. Katie Weber is an Army veteran and VA patient who has been fighting for veterans' healthcare for thirty years.

"I've been advocating for veterans' rights for a very long time," she said. "Veterans' healthcare was just finally getting good at the VA. In the last 12 months, over 60,000 federal employees who had provided direct veteran healthcare services, including us having a care team around us, have been laid off or paid off to retire early."

The federal government says the positions being open for so long is proof that they are unnecessary. But VA nurse John Kelley said he thinks that may be self-justification.  He said it's become harder and harder to get an appointment, so many patients have simply given up trying.

"If your staff is cut by a third, you're going to — The population is going to decrease also, right? You don't have the staff to see them all," said Kelley. "You're only going to see what you can see that day. But what you don't know is there are thousands of vets at home who need to come in."

Weber said she thinks it's intentional, an effort to degrade veterans' healthcare as an excuse to privatize the system. And she, like others, considers that reneging on a sacred promise.

"I don't know why they came for the veterans. I really don't," she said. "I don't understand it.  But I do know that a lot of us were in the midst of healing for the first time in a really long time, and it was really, really helpful. And now, were just kind of like, 'What do we do? "

Early in the Trump administration, when DOGE was in operation, there were plans to trim the VA by roughly 80,000 workers, or about 15 percent of its workforce. But in July, after public outcry, the VA backed off, saying they would instead achieve reductions using the hiring freeze.