Donald Trump repeats inaccurate figure that ‘over 300,000 veterans died waiting for care’

By Michelle Ye Hee Lee

A reader pointed us to Trump’s proposal on his campaign Web site, which repeated an inaccurate figure The Fact Checker wrote about in September 2015.

Carly Fiorina had inaccurately claimed twice during the GOP debate on CNN that 307,000 veterans had died waiting for health care. This figure is significantly higher than previous estimates that “dozens” of veterans had died waiting for health care in an Arizona VA facility.

In fact, Fiorina repeated the claim again during the Nov. 14 Florida Sunshine Summit: “It is a stain on our nation’s honor when we learn that 307,000 veterans died before they had access to health care.”

This is a widely misreported statistic that first began circulating after a Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Inspector General report released Sept. 2, 2015, and subsequent news coverage. Concerned Veterans for America, a conservative veterans advocacy group, cited an article quoting this figure in a political ad released this month. But the difference is that the group’s ad quotes a headline that says 307,000 “may” have died waiting for care, versus Trump’s statement (and Fiorina’s references, for that matter) that states the figure as a direct fact.

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