Brave men and women of this great nation choose to make what many have referred to as the ultimate sacrifice by answering our nation’s call to serve as a member of the United States Armed Forces. Most have no clue of how these individuals manage to tolerate the rigors of highly intensive, extended training days for months at a time. The idea of maintaining mental, physical, and spiritual resilience throughout lengthy combat deployments to the middle east and other tormented nations abroad all while having to uphold a long distance relationship with your significant other, children, and family is mind boggling. Statistics have proven that the job of United States military personnel to be one of the most stressful professions in today’s job market. Most people refer to the these audacious men and women as heroes for the selfless act of enlisting to serve their country. Others believe that the one percent of those daring enough to sign their lives away to Uncle Sam are terribly insane or just plain mad even. Once your time has been completed as an active service member, drilling reservist or guardsmen, or a member of the active guard and reserve (AGR), it is customarily assumed that these doughty individuals would be able to collect on an insurmountable debt from this great nation but the majority of them never have the chance to even cash on a fraction of what is justifiably due to them. The United States Department of Veterans Affairs, most refer to it as the VA, has been
They claimed Iraq and Afghanistan veteran polls have been taken, it shows that whatever improvements and actions being were taken were not enough. Fifty-nine percent of the people rated the job the government was doing to help was good, while fifty-six percent rated it as them doing poorly. In an article by CNN news nineteen veterans have died because of delays for medical treatments from the Veterans Affair. Those nineteen veterans were only a small proportion of that group. A number of eight-two veterans who have died because of delays for medical treatments like colonoscopies or endoscopies. Some people like my father (Jason McLain), who is a retired veteran, believes that some doctors have their own personal bias toward veterans. Jason McLain stated, “When I go to the VA they do not help me as soon as I need their help. Although when I go to any other civilian doctor’s office they help me right away with any of their help”. A website by the name of Free Grants Community stated that success and failures of the Departments of Veterans Affair are frequently the subjects of political promises and debates. There are many places that can help with benefits or homelessness, simply anything veteran(active/retired) need. A six-year veteran stated that there are places to help but emphasizes that you have to pursue yourself. After you are done with the military to go back to school and to keep getting educated. Besides the fact the regular ordinary citizens complain that veterans are not getting enough help, there have been complaints against all employers for discrimination has blames the economic crisis and ballooning deficits for the inability to provide for more
In today's society where opinion matters, people have been extremely vocal about the lack of support the government has provided to our veterans. Many feel as if the government should do more, while others feel as if they are doing enough. Everyone will have a difference of opinion no matter if they have severed in the military or not. No matter how one may feel, is extremely important to take care of our veterans. As they have sacrificed their lives, time, and family to protect our country. Contrary to one's belief, the government provides a substantial amount of programs, which support the veterans. Honestly more could be done. On any given day you could see women and men standing on the corner holding signs implying they are homeless veterans and will work for food. A few programs the government offers our veterans are funding for mental health services, The Wounded Warrior Project and Vocational Rehabilitation and Education, which will be discussed throughout this essay. When you research the programs, they make it sound as if all proceeds are going towards the best treatment and care money could buy.
The VA System needs a complete over all we are doing a terrible disservices to our veteran’s.
The Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) has been tasked with providing support and benefits to Veterans after they have completed their service. However, many Veterans are reporting difficulty accessing care due to systematic barriers within the VA’s Veterans Health Administration (Oliver, 2007). Complex eligibility requirements, long wait lists and lack of providers are a few of the issues Veterans are faced with when trying to access health and mental health care. Additionally, studies indicate that veterans, predominantly those from the recent wars in Iran and Iraq, have disproportionately high amounts of mental illness (Shim & Rust, 2013). These same veterans are experiencing difficulty accessing mental health care due to issues around a backlog of healthcare eligibility applications and a shortage of mental health providers through the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), which operates the Nation’s largest, integrated health care delivery system (APA, 2014). In 2014, at the request of the Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) evaluated the merit of the allegations of mismanagement at the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) and the Health Eligibility Center (HEC).
Over the past 15 years, the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) has seen a dramatic increase in the average degree of disability, growth in the number of compensation recipients, a rise in the number of medical issues claimed and an increased level of complexity of claimed issues. To illustrate this point, prior to the September 2011 terrorist attacks, 333,700 Veterans received compensation at the 70-100 percent level; however, these figures rose to over 1.1 million by the end of 2013. Additionally, since 2009, VA’s disability compensation workload rose 132 percent. This is in large part due to an unprecedented demand resulting from over a decade of war, military downsizing, economic issues, increased outreach, the addition of presumptive conditions and an aging Veteran population.
This is like a bomb waiting to go off: Family of veterans have to live with fear, hoping that their love one would recuperate, be happy, or simply a civilian again. The Veterans Affairs Department (VA) should put a better effort to better assist veterans, and their family with a better plan to reduce this preventable death. Many veterans find it difficult to admit, control, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), let alone reaching for help; when they do so, they are considered just another number at the VA. At any moment, a veteran?s sacrifice for this country should end
Current funding for veteran healthcare care is low and insufficient because of the large number of veterans, who are being discharged from the military as the country transitions to a democratic President. According to Dr. Rachel Nardin in her article about veteran healthcare, “Soldiers get excellent acute care when injured on active duty, but as revelations of poor conditions for soldiers receiving ongoing outpatient care at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center highlighted, service members often have trouble getting the care they need once active duty ends” (Nardin 1)
During the botched 2010 roll out of the affordable care act, multiple veteran’s agencies marched on Washington with fears of how the Tax/Mandate would affect indigent veterans who could not afford the penalty and could not afford secondary insurance. In their hubris, these agents pushed an agenda that has greatly hurt the veteran population.
The U.S Department Veteran’s Affairs (VA) provides a wide range of benefits for our service members, veterans and their families. Some of these benefits include but are not limited to include compensation, disability, education, and home loans. Throughout this paper I will discuss these benefits and the eligibility required to receive them. Eligibility for most VA benefits is based on type of discharge received through the military which is normally all discharges under other than dishonorable conditions.
Veterans Affairs is infamous for corruption and public scandals, yet have high rankings of overall patient satisfaction from outside reports. The Congressional Research Service estimates that there are about 21 million veterans in the United States and only 9 million veterans are enrolled in the VA. Only 5 million veterans actually received care during 2014’s fiscal year. “In a given year, not every VA-enrolled veteran receives VA health care services. Some veterans may opt not to seek care during the year, while others may receive care outside the VA system, paying for care using private health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, the military health system”
Contrary to the perception that our nation’s veterans are well supported in fact many go without the services they require of which they are
Lincoln made a promise stated, “To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan”. This quote is being neglected by us as Americans in trying to provide for our veterans. Do the research and you will see that veterans who have served for our country are living homeless. Also, thousands of veterans are forced to buy food stamps and they struggle to feed their families. Veterans in hospitals who suffer from PTSD attempt to commit suicide more than you would think. In this essay, I’m going to explain how our government can help provide better housing, food benefits, and ways we can help provide better mental health facilities.
“Everyone knows the dangers of being in the military. Many military members put their lives on the line every day, which makes them some of the most underpaid people in America. But there are also other considerations, such as working with hazardous materials and in dangerous situations, being on call 24-7/365, and dealing with long term deployments and family separation”(Guina). I will write about why Military members are not getting paid enough, but not all I will be focusing on military members who are single with no dependents and are part of deployable units and I will be comparing them to their civilian counterparts who are in college.
The military is not notorious for its ability to pay in abundance; however, after considering
Trends have shown a decline in the use of GI Bill educational benefits. Restrictions on tuition assistance, confusing enrollment processes, and strict admission requirements are causing drops in the number of servicemen and women taking advantage of GI Bill benefits. Some of these restrictions include limitations on which schools can be attended and how long these benefits can be used for. The American Military University saw nearly 2,700 students drop out from 2015 to 2016 (Gross & Altman, 2017).