Does the VA purposely make it so difficult to receive care that applicants give up?

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"Deny, deny, deny until they die..." seems to be the motto of the VHA branch of the VA.

It's a product of "bureaucracies." It's not that the VA or any organization is intentionally causing the issue, it's that any organization that is large enough to have a "process" will create these issues through the organizational process. It's just impossible not to.

Now that said, some of these processes (and the laws that dictate them) are more or less complex than they need to be, which exacerbates the issue. As an example, being able to submit handwritten paperwork would seemingly "simplify" the process for the "customer" but it makes it more complex for the organization, slowing it down. If they require everything to be submitted electronically it reverses that.

So, the bigger an organization, and the more complex and issue it has to deal with, the more of a backlog it will create. The VA is a MASSIVE organization, and it is HUGELY complex in scope. Backlogs are a product of that.

Though I am the first to rail against them, I cannot call "most" of this intentional.

Absolutely it's built into all government agencies and programs. Remember the bosses get bonuses for cost cutting and can't be fired. Just saying.