Veterans Affairs

David Shulkin (center), the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs undersecretary of health, talks with attendees in July prior to testifying at a Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing in Gilbert, Ariz. Donald Trump has selected Shulkin to lead the agency. Ross D. Franklin/AP hide caption

Coning left the Marines in 2013. His wife says she thinks it's likely he had post-traumatic stress disorder, but he was never tested for it by the VA. Courtesy of the Coning family hide caption

Stacy Bannerman testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs in 2006. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc./Getty Images hide caption

Sue McConnell is one of more than 130 transgender veterans receiving treatment at the Tucson Veterans Affairs hospital. Jimmy Jenkins/KJZZ hide caption

Daniel Harmon, a veteran of the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, looks out the window of his room at the Hollywood Veterans Center in Los Angeles. The facility provides housing to homeless vets. David Gilkey/NPR hide caption

Alan Oates was exposed to herbicides, such as Agent Orange, while serving in Vietnam in 1968. Decades after returning home, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and because Congress passed the Agent Orange Act, he's able to receive VA benefits. Courtesy of Alan Oates hide caption

A U.S. Air Force C-123 sprays herbicides on dense jungle beside a South Vietnamese highway on May 18, 1966. This aircraft is the last in a formation of three. Spray from the other two planes can be seen ahead. U.S. Air Force via AP hide caption

The ferry pulls in to Friday Harbor, the only incorporated city in San Juan County, Wash. Veterans will often travel the hourlong ferry ride to reach VA services here. Patricia Murphy/KUOW hide caption

Grant County Veterans Service Officer Bob Kelley (right) works with World War II Army veteran Frederick Kern at the Grant County Government Building in Marion, Ind., on Monday. Aaron P. Bernstein for NPR hide caption

George Murray, who served in Vietnam, was able to access his medical benefits from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs relatively easily while living in Boston. But veterans living in other parts of Massachusetts, like Cape Cod, have more difficulty. Across the U.S., VA data show the unevenness in its benefit spending. Jesse Costa/WBUR hide caption