WASHINGTON – Army veteran Dennis Magnasco had a sore wrist. So he called the VA to make an appointment.

What happened next was so frustrating – and emblematic of the problems that veterans face getting health care from the Department of Veterans Affairs – that Rep. Seth Moulton’s staff filmed it. And posted it on Facebook.

But as much as Moulton said he was bothered by the run-around that Magnasco, his aide, got on the VA’s phone system, he is also disturbed by VA plans to build a new appointment system that costs more than $600 million.

The new system will allow veterans to make appointments by phone or online, but Moulton said the department could buy a cheaper system off the shelf.

Moulton and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Washington, chairwoman of the Congressional Military Families Caucus, are criticizing the project as wasteful, even as the VA faces continued scrutiny over the time it takes to get appointments.

The wait is is getting worse.

As of January, about 30,000 more veterans had to wait more than a month to get an appointment than at the same time last year, according to VA figures.

In January, VA patients waited a month or more in 4.2 percent of all cases, up from 3.4 percent a year earlier.

The average wait for primary-care appointments was 5.2 days, up from 4.6 days a year ago.

A VA program put in place in 2014 to give veterans an alternative is also taking criticism.

Veterans Choice allows patients with waits longer than a month to see a provider outside the VA system.

But a group of senators, including Sen. Kelly Ayotte R-New Hampshire, on Tuesday introduced a measure aimed at dealing with complaints from veterans who are having trouble being able to see non-VA doctors close to home.

Ayotte and six other Republicans said duplicative, confusing regulations make Veterans Choice difficult to use. Red tape slows reimbursements and discourages doctors from participating.

In addition to dealing with those issues, their bill makes the program permanent beyond its 2017 sunset date.

Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Indiana, said he urged Health Net Federal Services, the contractor that schedules Veterans Choice appointments, to deal with problems faced by veterans in his state.

Not only are they facing long wait times, they get cut off trying to make appointments through Health Net’s scheduling system.

Their frustrations echo those of veterans trying to schedule appointments directly with the VA.

Magnasco’s experience illustrates the headaches of using the VA, said Moulton, the congressman who served in Iraq as a U.S. Marine.

The office video, shared more than 34,000 times on Facebook since it was posted in February, shows Magnasco, who works in Moulton’s district office in Salem, Massachusetts, calling the VA.

“Hello, welcome to the Bedford VA phone care system,” a robotic voice says.

“Please enter your Social Security number by pressing the numbers on your telephone keypad.”

Magnasco does.

After being instructed to punch “1” to make an appointment, the voice then tells him to punch “2” for an attendant.

Magnasco presses “2.”

“Hello, welcome to the Bedford VA phone care system, please enter your Social Security number using the numbers on your keypad.”

This goes on for 4 minutes, 38 seconds when, finally, after pushing “2” again to transfer to an attendant, Magnasco gets a ringing sound.

The phone keeps ringing …

“Hello, welcome to the Bedford VA phone care system, please enter your Social Security number using the numbers on your keypad.”

As frustrating as that system is, Moulton and McMorris have introduced a bill, expected to be heard by a House Government Oversight subcommittee later this month, requiring the VA to test an off-the-shelf system instead of creating its own.

They said it will be cheaper and more quickly give veterans the same ability to schedule appointments as civilians.

Neither were able to say how much cheaper it would be.

The measure is backed by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Matt Miller, a policy officer for the group, said in a statement it is “is perfectly in sync with our goal of increasing access to quality health care in as timely a manner as possible.”

In an interview, Rodgers said, “All of our veterans should be able to use the same technology as anyone else.”

The VA did not respond to requests for comment.

Moulton said he asked VA officials for an explanation of why it is building its own system.

“It wasn’t convincing,” he said. “They didn’t have one.” he said.

The measure wouldn’t reduce waiting times for appointments.

Boston-area VA facilities have some of the better wait times in the country, with just 3.5 percent of cases waiting longer than 30 days, according to VA data.

The number of cases waiting that long at the Bedford VA, in Moulton’s district, is slightly higher at 3.7 percent.

Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, lashed out at the VA’s scheduling system – and the waiting times.

“It’s outrageous that those who have served and sacrificed for our country have one of the slowest and most inefficient healthcare services available in the nation,” he said.

Kery Murakami is the Washington, D.C. reporter for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at kmurakami@cnhi.com