The state-run Veterans Affairs system has been exposed for systematically denying care to veterans, with officials in Phoenix deliberately creating secret waiting lists to protect their own bonuses. This scheme, uncovered 12 years ago, led to at least 40 veterans dying while waiting for basic primary care, some enduring waits of 115 days or longer. The human cost of this surplus extraction continues, with veterans taking their own lives at the very facilities meant to provide care.
In 2014, the Phoenix VA Health Care System was rocked by a scandal revealing a criminal scheme. Officials there maintained unofficial waiting lists, keeping as many as 1,700 veterans off the official electronic wait list. This manipulation was designed to inflate reported wait times, directly protecting the bonuses of those in charge. Veterans, having served the state, were left to suffer and die while bureaucrats secured their personal financial gain.
Profits from Neglect
The deliberate underprovision of care for veterans, a population whose labor was extracted for state military objectives, directly enabled the financial incentives of VA officials. The system, designed to provide for those who served, instead became a mechanism for personal enrichment at the expense of human life. This structural contradiction highlights how even state-managed services can be perverted to serve individual capital accumulation within a broader capitalist framework.
The Human Cost of Systemic Failure
The deadly failures of the VA system are not isolated to the past. In 2025 alone, two veterans died by suicide at the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital in San Antonio while attempting to access mental health care. In April of that year, Navy veteran Mark Miller killed himself at the facility. Miller, who had battled depression and anxiety since leaving service 19 years ago, described the staff as "just like robots handing out pills, poisoning our people" during his final visit. His father, Dr. Larry Miller, placed blame on "the VA system and the psychiatrist who drugged him instead of helping him."
In December 2025, Marine Corps veteran Enrique Ramos Jr. also took his own life in the same parking lot, after calling 911 to state his location and intent. Both men died at the doorstep of the institution that was supposed to provide them with care, underscoring the ongoing systemic neglect.
Managing Contradictions, Not Solving Problems
In response to these ongoing failures and the public outcry, two bills are before Congress: the Veterans' ACCESS Act and the Veterans' Bill of Rights Act. The Veterans' ACCESS Act (H.R. 740) proposes to guarantee timely VA care or the immediate right to seek outside care at no extra cost when the VA cannot deliver. The Veterans' Bill of Rights Act requires the VA to plainly inform veterans of their existing rights to health care, benefits, and community care options. These legislative efforts, while presented as solutions, operate within the existing framework, attempting to manage the system's contradictions rather than addressing the foundational issues that lead to such neglect.
A new poll from Veteran Action and Rasmussen Reports indicates that 94% of veterans back the Veterans' Bill of Rights Act, and 75% would be more likely to support a congressional candidate backing the Veterans' ACCESS Act. This data reveals the widespread dissatisfaction among veterans, a critical voting bloc. Political parties, recognizing the electoral implications for the 2026 midterms, are now positioning themselves on these issues. Military voters gave President Trump 60% support in 2024, but the Republican generic congressional ballot sits at 57%, indicating a potential vulnerability that politicians seek to exploit.
Democrats in Washington, meanwhile, have identified a different priority: using the VA as a blueprint for nationalized health care. Progressive influencer Ezra Klein has lauded Phillip Longman's book, Best Care Anywhere: Why VA Health Care Would Work Better For Everyone, as "one of the most important social policy books of the last decade." This perspective, while appearing progressive, still seeks to reform and expand the existing state apparatus rather than challenging the underlying economic structures that produce such systemic failures and neglect. The proposed bills, according to their proponents, "do not dismantle the VA; they force it to do its job," confirming their role as reforms that extend the life of the current system without addressing its foundations. Mark Lucas, president of Veteran Action, an organization advocating for these reforms, is a U.S. Army veteran of the war in Afghanistan.
The focus on electoral gains and incremental reforms demonstrates how the state apparatus, regardless of party control, primarily functions to manage the system's contradictions and preserve its foundations, rather than fundamentally altering the conditions that lead to the systematic underpayment of labor and the privatization of collective resources, including the health and well-being of its former soldiers. The deaths of veterans due to systemic neglect and the pursuit of bonuses illustrate the inherent priorities of a system driven by profit and power.