VA to make crisis hotline toll-free by 2030
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has announced plans to eliminate charges associated with its Veterans Crisis Line and says it will make the service toll-free by 2030.
As it currently stands, callers to the hotline must pay 22 cents per minute on top of a nonrefundable $40 deposit. According to the VA Website, the fees and deposits help “handle irritating callers” who call the hotline seeking support.
“This was a big decision for the VA,” said Denis McDonough, Secretary of Veterans Affairs. “We wanted to remove any barriers a poverty-stricken veteran may face. But obviously, the VA needs to remain profitable, and we were able to deny a ton of disability claims from folks over at Walter Reed to compensate for the lost revenue.”
A credit card will still be required if a caller wants to stay with a counselor for more than 90 seconds, however. “I called them back in March, cost me $200,” said Air Force veteran John Kendrick.
The Mephisto Institute, a D.C.-based think tank focused on eliminating veteran homelessness, initially recommended the toll for the crisis line to “get a few off the street and take ’em out of their misery.” The measure was signed into law in 2005 after unanimous support from the Senate, House of Representatives, and the Taliban.
The introduction of a fee to use the hotline went largely unreported due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dominating headlines. But a TikTok posted recently by a former Army sergeant who went over his daily hotline budget has led critics to question the practice.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), a Navy veteran, initially led a charge to reduce the toll to 20 cents per minute before public pressure led him to lobby for its full elimination. Those efforts failed after Crenshaw hurt his finger and couldn’t be bothered to type out the bill, sources said.
“I get it. Our military saw some horrible stuff over in Iraq and Vietnam and Syria and Afghanistan and Killeen and Libya and Somalia and Iraq—again—and Bosnia and Grenada and Panama and Laos and Korea,” McDonough said. “But I don’t want their emotions draining the nation’s pocketbook.”
At press time, officials noted that veterans would not be charged if they used the live chat or called the hotline by dialing a special code of “988” on their telephone.
