VA operates one of the largest healthcare systems in the United States.The VA employs highly trained professionals who are dedicated to providing top quality health care to veterans. VA also ensures that veterans and their dependents receive accurate and timely financial payments, and a dignified burial.
VA staff members work at military bases and hospitals worldwide. Here are a few facts about today's VA.
VA has 157 hospitals and more than 860 community-based clinics.
VA employees are working in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and other US territories. We operate a large medical clinic in the Philippines and a military discharge facility in South Korea.
VA hospitals will treat 5.2 million patients this year.
More than 50 million outpatient visits are made through VA hospitals and clinics.
VA fills more than 100 million prescriptions per year.
VA is the world leader in research and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.
VA is an employer of choice for women, minority members, and disabled people. We reward merit with wide-open opportunity.
Health Care
Studies have shown that patients in the VA health care system receive better care than private sector patients. And VA inpatients and outpatients are happier with the care they receive than those patients in the private sector.
VA doctors and researchers have played key roles the medical community by developing the cardiac pacemaker and the CT scan, performing the first liver transplant, and conducting research that has led to major improvements in treatment of tuberculosis, schizophrenia and high blood pressure. In fact, three Nobel Prize winners have worked for the VA health care system.
Compensation and Pension
More than 3.6 million veterans and their survivors will receive VA disability compensation and pensions this year worth more than $32 billion.
GI Bill
The GI Bill is often referred to as the single most important piece of social legislation in American history, credited with creating the "middle class" in post-war America. Since 1944 when the GI Bill began, 21 million veterans and surviving family members have taken advantage of the education program.
Home Loans
VA helped 336,000 veterans buy homes worth $44 billion last year through our home loan guaranty program. Since the end of WWII, VA has guaranteed more than 17 million home loans totaling more than $811 billion.
Cemeteries
VA manages 120 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico in which nearly 90,000 interments were conducted last year. With 11 new cemeteries planned by 2009, NCA is undergoing the single largest expansion of its cemetery system since the Civil War. VA provides grants for construction of state veterans cemeteries. With 60 state cemeteries in operation and two more under development, there is either a national or state veterans cemetery in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Guam.
Insurance
VA operates one of the largest life insurance programs in the Nation, administering $729 billion in coverage for 2.8 million veterans and armed service members, plus 3.1 million surviving spouses and children.
