San Francisco—C. Isa Kocher, a service-connected disabled veteran of the U.S. Air Force, offers the following opinion piece. With uncertainty on benefits and health care surrounding the VA, this piece warns veterans and VA beneficiaries of a new reality under President Trump’s and Secretary Doug Collins’ leadership. Isa is a New York UOCAVA voter, resident of Türkiye, and a Member of the Democrats Abroad Global Veterans and Military Families Caucus.
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Having spent an absurd amount of my adult years as a patient in veterans’ hospitals and private clinics for the permanent injuries I sustained while in uniform, I thought I knew what “life support” looked like—that is, until I saw what’s being done to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
The White House, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and Congressional Republicans are all at fault for having gutted our beloved VA, and all of them continue to create carnage throughout the federal government. No veteran asked the VA to have fewer employees, fewer services, fewer benefits, less mental health counseling, and less Congressional oversight. But then again, what do President Donald Trump, former DOGE co-leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, Acting DOGE Administrator Amy Gleason, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune all have in common? None of them are veterans. “Shocking.”
Not every veteran has a positive experience in dealing with the VA. Some disabled veterans truly do receive world-class health care, while others get caught in bureaucratic nightmares, get stuck on hold when calling the VA, or have other negative experiences. The VA has fought for me and my health care, and now I’m fighting for the VA.
Because of my life-threatening health issues as a permanently disabled veteran, in December of 2024, I was forced to seek in-person treatment at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. But before coming back to the U.S., I had been getting weekly mental health therapy for my diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by video and face-to-face with another American abroad who’s a licensed psychotherapist. Because of these meetings, we achieved life-changing breakthroughs in our therapy, which were not achieved by the VA’s Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) method or its Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) treatment. I also was not able to make progress communicating with overly talkative therapists for over half a century, and the medications they supplied me, ironically, only engendered suicidal ideation; thus, these methods of VA treatments, at least for me, were proven to be ineffective and even counter-productive.
Unfortunately, my previous appointments with that individual in Türkiye abruptly ended when I sought medical care in the U.S. because my therapist was licensed in Brazil, Türkiye, and elsewhere in Europe but not within the U.S. Because all my health issues are directly related to service-connected PTSD, the medical professionals at the San Francisco VA—those who had me as a patient in cardiology, neurology, surgery, internal medicine, etc.—all strongly recommended that I continue with PTSD therapy as a core medical issue.
Then Donald Trump came into office.
Despite the professional manner in which I was being treated by myriad VA physicians and nurses and the like, I was recently and mysteriously denied PTSD therapy by the VA on the advice of the Behavioral Sciences Department. My anger aside, and without any adequate explanation from the VA, I began wondering how many other veterans were suddenly being told the same thing. Was this the result of DOGE cutting staff? Was this the result of VA Secretary Collins’ recent directives to make the VA “more efficient”?
It is no exaggeration to say that because of the VA, I am still alive. In moving forward, I now see that this administration has no regrets whatsoever about breaking the federal government’s long-lasting promise to take care of the nation’s veterans. Most medical professionals outside the VA have zero training in addressing the unique health care needs of those who’ve served in the military. For years, veterans have warned of Republicans wanting to shift veterans’ care to the private sector despite data showing VA's patient satisfaction towers over those in the private sector, and I believe what Republicans are now doing is no longer theoretical but actually happening in plain view. I have been discriminated against by our government and would not be surprised if millions of other service-connected veterans have been too, all in the name of making the VA “more efficient.”
If Va's newly proposed rules become operative, our most deserving heroes will undoubtedly be abandoned solely to enrich the for-profit medical sector. Project 2025 and MAGA extremism have proven to be dangerous to every American community. Our VA is on life support and hanging on by a thread. If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention. The only way to correct course is for all U.S. citizens, including my colleagues overseas, to request their home voting ballots and support Democrats up and down the ballot.
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U.S. citizens living abroad, both civilian and military, are highly encouraged to check your voter registration status and request your ballot for any upcoming elections in your home voting state that you are eligible to vote in.
The VMF Caucus, proudly consisting of veterans, military family members, and strong allies of veterans and military family causes, has a membership of approximately 1,300 members located in dozens of countries.
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