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Veteran Threatens to Perform Operation on Himself After VA “Refused” to Pay Medical Bill

While President Donald Trump stated on the campaign trail that he would prioritize fixing the Department of Veterans Affairs, progress has been slow, due to the large amount of incompetence at that agency.

In the latest example of a veteran having problems with the VA, John Irish, a veteran from New Hampshire, claimed that he was almost forced to operate on himself after the VA refused to pay his medical bills, WFXT reported.

Irish severely injured his thumb on a saw, which required a number of stitches. When Irish went back to the hospital to have his stitches removed, that’s when things got nasty with the VA.

“They handed me a slip of paper saying, ‘we are going to have to have you sign this, because the VA says they’re not going to pay the bill,'” Irish told the television station.

Irish gets his VA benefits through the VA Choice program — a program that Trump just signed an extension for. This program allows veterans to go to private clinics if they need to. The Choice program has many problems, and Irish said that this latest incident was the last straw.

“I thought it was about time the VA of New England got exposed for what it’s doing on this Choice program,” he stated.

Irish did eventually get the VA to pay for his bills, but only after he threatened to go home and take the stitches out himself while streaming the entire operation live on Facebook.
Apparently, it is only after being threatened with bad publicity that the VA will actually do anything to help veterans.

For its part, the VA has denied Irish’s claims, stating that “a review of our records show there was no prior contact or authorization regarding Mr. Irish,” and that “no care or payment had been denied.”

Irish said that he doesn’t blame the hospital for his ordeal; he blames incompetence at the VA. Given the agency’s record of poor treatment of veterans and scandal in recent years, it’s easy to believe he’s right.

Veterans like Irish deserve to have the best care available. They shouldn’t have to threaten to operate on themselves just to get treated like a human being.

Hopefully, Trump is working on a plan to ensure that Irish is one of the last veterans to ever get rejected by the VA. Trump promised to help America’s veterans, and we are going to hold him to that pledge.

http://conservativetribune.com/va-refuses-to-help-vet/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=conservativebyte&utm_campaign=dailyam&utm_content=libertyalliance