I’m looking for apps, websites, etc. that I can use to find independent/private caregivers. What are some good resources you used or would recommend for someone who can’t use an agency.
I’m a veterans and will be using the VA’s veteran directed care (VDC) program.
Thanks in advance!
This Bill Will Impact You — Read Before You Support It
The Take Care of America's Veterans Act has cleared committee. It wasn't brought to the floor this past Friday June 26th although it is ready. Watch for it after the holidays, because it will affect you. I held off writing this, but someone needs to lay out what the "just pass it" crowd is not saying, because of the following is problematic...
1. "Pass it so veterans get their benefits" is the trap. Anyone pushing that line supports veterans only when it's convenient or when they can make money off you. The package bundles the Major Richard Star Act, which lets medically retired veterans collect disability and retirement pay at once, with an "offset" that pays for it by cutting future sleep apnea and tinnitus disability ratings. Waving it through means asking one group of veterans to fund another. This is probably not new for you but think about the following...
2. The "offsets are the only way" argument is false, and the real target is bigger than two conditions. PAYGO is a congressional budget rule, and it's one Congress waives all the time. That matters, because it means Congress had alternatives to using these particular offsets, it just chose not to use them. Instead, it chose to pay for this bill with projected savings from proposed VASRD rating changes. Yes, the VA is proposing these changes regardless. But that choice is the whole problem: it ties individual disability rating revisions to financing an unrelated legislative initiative. And once Congress demonstrates that approach works, it becomes easier, politically and procedurally, to repeat it in the next bill, and the one after that. So the concern isn't limited to sleep apnea and tinnitus. It extends to every other rating schedule that could be treated the same way down the road. This is an attack on VA Disability Compensation and on Mandatory Spending Protections. Pass this, and Congress establishes a new precedent to adjust any VASRD condition however it sees fit, going forward. Worse, it sets the precedent for pulling VA Disability Compensation out of Mandatory Spending Protection and that protected status is exactly what keeps your compensation flowing during government shutdowns and lapses in funding. It's a different "color" of money for a reason. So when a congressman goes on a veteran's YouTube channel and says his goal is to remove Mandatory Spending Protections because he views them as unconstitutional, believe him. More than 6 million veterans stand to be hurt by this, including the very people this bill claims to help. This isn't my theory, either: IAVA's CEO warned, "Today it's tinnitus and sleep apnea. Tomorrow it could be PTSD, migraines, toxic exposure conditions." The VFW said flatly they refuse to accept that one group of veterans must lose so another can win.
3. Here's the part they don't want you to understand — the color of money. You cannot move money from one color (Mandatory Spending Protections) to another (Discretionary) without congressional approval. That's the only reason Congress is involved here. But the VA, on its own, can move Mandatory Spending Protection money to other mandatory protection efforts without going back to Congress. It is a little more nuanced than this but that isn't the point. So if the VA reduces compensation by updating the VASRD, it can take those savings and apply them to other programs in the same color bucket Post-9/11 GI Bill, DIC, and others, with no congressional action needed. Which raises the obvious question: why not just pass the Star Act, fund it, and claw back any VASRD savings internally? They can. They won't. They don't want to borrow, they don't want to raise taxes, and per the subcommittee meeting, they don't want to pull from other well-funded discretionary efforts like CBP, etc. So they've decided to raise fees on some veterans to pay for others. When did it become veterans' responsibility to pay for other veterans? Congress doesn't want to do its job and figure it out, it wants veterans to fund veterans, because that's what fits their interests.
4. Why route the Star Act through the NDAA? Here's a distinction that trips a lot of people up, and it matters. Authorization and appropriations are two different things. The National Defense Authorization Act authorizes programs, it sets the policy and says a thing is allowed to exist, while appropriations fund them, providing the actual dollars. The Major Richard Star Act is currently proposed, not yet approved, to be carried through the NDAA legislative process, with the actual money coming through the Defense Appropriations Act. Once you understand that split, ask yourself if it ties back to the color of money. It does. What happens when the DoD budget needs to be cut, do you think these benefits survive? Does routing it this way open an avenue to move money out of this program and into other non-DoD discretionary efforts? Isn't it suddenly easier for Congress to shift these funds elsewhere? The answer to all of it is yes. Supporting this just to "get it passed" ignores the long-term consequences entirely.
5. The offsets are a preview, not a one-time event. The VA has already shown its hand: it updated the M21-1 to reduce shin splint compensation by forcing a single rating and eliminating the bilateral nature of the condition. Where did those savings go, and how did that help veterans? The mechanism now aimed at sleep apnea and tinnitus is the VA's proposed 2022 rule change, sleep apnea moves to a treatment-effectiveness scale, standalone tinnitus largely disappears, and VA's own analysis estimated it could cut disability payments by $57 billion over ten years. But this doesn't stop there. When the VASRD updates for neurology, audiology, mental health, and respiratory are released, there will need to be further offsets, because the mental health revisions are supposed to be more veteran-friendly, which means they cost more. Where will that money come from once OSA and tinnitus are gone? Likely another overrun, with Congress forced to appropriate more anyway. So if they're going to appropriate the money regardless, why not put it in the non-discretionary bucket for the Star Act now? Because, just like before, Congress would rather strip the money set aside for veterans and re-appropriate it into discretionary efforts. If the Star Act sat in the Mandatory bucket, the VA could handle the offsets internally and Congress would only need to approve the Act and its funding. Yes, that forces a claw-back. That's Congress's job. They just won't do it, because veterans aren't the interest being served. More importantly, as mentioned above, this opens the path to VA Disability Comp and sets the precedent...
6. And watch what this administration actually does with "savings" from veterans' programs — we now have a year of receipts. In February 2025, Secretary Collins announced ~$2 billion in VA contract cuts, promising the money would go "back to veterans." It fell apart fast: the cuts, built by an error-prone DOGE AI tool that found essentially no fraud, hit cancer care, PTSD, and suicide-prevention programs hard enough that the VA had to reverse hundreds of them. Then came the admission that matters: asked whether the savings would even stay in the VA, Collins said he cannot guarantee they would, "that'll be up to the president," while the administration eyed those savings for tax cuts. The savings claims themselves turned out to be inflated or fabricated, and a year later veterans got longer mental-health waits and a slower claims process, not redirected windfalls.
Bottom line: When they tell you a bill "puts money back to veterans," ask the question Collins couldn't answer, guarantee it stays with us. They can't. That's why moving these benefits out of their protected status isn't a technicality. It's the whole game.
It is not too late... There is still time for you to do something! Let's stay strong and stay together!
Edit: Sorry I messed up. It's HR 9237.