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Idaho Veterans Narrowly Approve of VA Service

Flickr - Laura Gilmore
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Most Idaho veterans think the agency set up to assist them after military service - the Department of Veterans Affairs - is doing a pretty good job overall. In a statewide survey of veterans, Idaho senior Senator Mike Crapo found that 51 percent of about a thousand respondents ranked their experience with the VA as satisfying or better.

But Crapo also stressed that a sizable portion, about 30 percent, said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the service - both medical and administrative - that they got.

Crapo's survey included questions about the quality of VA healthcare, transportation to VA appointments, wait times for doctors' or hospital appointments, benefits and claims processing, appeals and educational benefits.

Perhaps surprisingly, given the nationwide scandal about long wait times for hospital admittance and fudged records, most Idaho veterans who gave the VA a failing grade did not fault the quality of health care. Rather, they criticized red tape in processing their benefits and claims, and slow response to appeals filed for VA decisions.

Crapo estimated that about 132-thousand veterans live in Idaho.

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