One of the reasons the modern VA has such a big backlog of cases might be that they have been encouraged lately to follow up on Agent Orange and PTSD complaints, which used to be dismissed outright as nuisances in the past. Another reason is that many vets who have lost health insurance or their jobs have been turning to the VA for medical insurance due to the economy. I myself have been in that latter category, and have seen many examples of the former in my visits to the local clinic.

There is also a big emphasis now on suicide, homelessness, AIDS, mental, drug abuse and other issues that seem to disproportionally plague vets. On my visits to the VA I see mostly Vietnam-era patients there, well over half. The rest are about evenly split between WWII/Korea and the Iraq/Afghan conflicts.