How the VA has helped Veterans

The VA is a leading health care system providing Veterans with high-quality care and benefits. It prioritizes service members and families, offering low-cost or free health services. The VA provides additional benefits for Veterans’ well-being. These are some of the VA accomplishments that positively impacted Veterans and their families.

• The VA is the nation’s largest integrated health care system with over 1,200 locations.
• The VA has earned a spot among the top 10 fastest-rising research institutions in North America, according to the prestigious Nature Index. VA research has a long history of medical breakthroughs, including the development of the CAT scan, the innovation of the pacemaker, and performing the first-ever liver transplant. Recent research by VA researchers has supported critical initiatives such as the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, women’s health, telehealth, suicide prevention, the PACT Act, President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot, and many others.
• VA delivered more than 116 million health care appointments to Veterans in 2023, surpassing the previous record by more than 3 million appointments. VA has continued to expand access to care by adding night clinics, weekend clinics, and more.
• In June 2023 VA guaranteed its 28 millionth home loan. The VA home loan has been instrumental for countless Veterans and service members and VA has guaranteed more than 20 million home loans since the program was established in 1944. Even in the dynamic housing market of the last several years, rates of foreclosures of VA-backed mortgages are among the lowest in the country.
• In calendar year 2023 VA permanently housed 46,552 homeless Veterans, exceeding its goal to house 38,000 by 22.5%.
• In 2023 the Veterans Crisis Line received 1,063,771 calls, texts, and chats over the previous year – up 12.4% over the prior year. VA also provided no-cost emergency health care to 47,723 Veterans in acute suicidal crises through a new program launched in January.

VA is providing more life insurance coverage for Veterans: VA provided an all-time record $1.5 trillion in life insurance coverage to 5.6 million policyholders. This includes new coverage awarded through VALife, a program that extended life insurance access to millions of Veterans. The VALife program now provides more than $1.2 billion in coverage to more than 39,000 eligible Veterans.