VA wait lists longer now than a year ago: 'Something has to give'

WASHINGTON — The number of veterans seeking health care and ending up on waiting lists for a month or more is 50 percent higher now than it was a year ago, when a scandal over false records and long wait times wracked the Department of Veterans Affairs, The New York Times reported.

The VA also faces a budget shortfall of nearly $3 billion, the Times reported in a story posted online ahead of its Sunday editions. The agency is considering furloughs, hiring freezes and other significant moves to reduce the gap, the newspaper reported. The VA budget was increased $16 billionlast summer in the wake of the scandal, noted the Christian Science Monitor last August: "Here's what the 'do-nothing' Congress actually did do." 

The spending increase funded several efforts to diminish wait times, reported the Monitor's Francine Kiefer: 

Read the full article at The Christian Science Monitor