V.A. Official Says Fixing Issues at Root of Waiting-List Scandal Will Cost Billions

Fixing the problems that led to the waiting-list scandal at the Department of Veterans Affairs will cost $17.6 billion over the next three years, the agency’s acting secretary told lawmakers Wednesday, requiring the hiring of about 1,500 doctors and 8,500 nurses and other clinicians.
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His dollar estimate drew immediate skepticism from leading Republicans, including Representative Jeff Miller of Florida, who is chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

“Given that this figure seems to have magically fallen out of the sky today — after years of assertions from V.A. leaders at all levels that they had nearly every dollar and every person necessary to accomplish V.A.’s mission — it would be an act of budgetary malpractice to blindly sign off on this request,” Mr. Miller said in a statement. But Mr. Gibson cautioned lawmakers that there had been a “historic shortfall in internal V.A. capacity” and that the department required far more than money to simply send some patients to outside doctors.