Essay On Veteran Health Care

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

People often say that freedom is not free and that price has been paid by countless brave individuals. These brave individuals are known as veterans. Veterans should be remembered, respected and honored because of their sacrifices, courage, and patriotism.

The Veterans Health Administration is home to the United States’ largest integrated health care system consisting of 150 medical centers, nearly 1,400 community-based outpatient clinics, community living centers, Vet Centers and Domiciliary. Together these health care facilities and the more than 53,000 independent licensed health care practitioners who work within them provide comprehensive care to more than 8.3 million Veterans each year. VHA Medical Centers provide a wide range of services including traditional hospital-based services such as surgery, critical care, mental health, orthopedics, pharmacy, radiology and physical therapy. In addition, most of the medical centers offer additional medical and surgical specialty services including audiology & speech pathology, dermatology, dental, geriatrics, neurology, oncology, podiatry, prosthetics, urology, and vision

In the past few years there has been increasing discussion about how to provide adequate care for the increasing number of veterasn who are eligible for care through the Veterans’ healthcare administration (VHA). There are concerns is that the VHA is not providing the level of access, efficiency, and quality of care that veterans expect. Lee & Begley, (2016) suggest access to care for the veteran population may be resulting in poor health outcomes. In response to these concerns, the Veterans ' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act (VACAA) of 2014, also known as the Veterans Choice Act, was created to improve Veterans’ healthcare. The VACAA proposed to do this by expanding the number of options veterans have for receiving healthcare, by providing access for healthcare at non-VA care centers as well as providing for an increase in staffing at VA facilities (U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2016).

The main research questions in this study are: 1) is veteran healthcare equal to private healthcare; 2) do veterans have to wait longer for treatment options; and 3) do veterans have limited treatment options? It is hypothesized that veterans receive inferior healthcare services compared to private healthcare and the community is unaware of the disparities.

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)

In 1930, President Theodore Roosevelt instituted the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for the purpose of providing for those who served in the military and their dependants. Because the VA is dedicated to providing care to those who have made a sacrifice for our country, it is often held to a higher standard than other healthcare providers, however, many have criticized the VA for failing the veterans by being financially wasteful, ethically unsound, and inefficient in providing health care. As of late, the VA has been seen in a negative light due to an influx of scandals, and many have began questioning who should responsible for fixing the issues that haunt the VA. The VA cannot be allowed to continuously fail these

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a government-run military veteran benefit system that provides essential financial and medical assistance to veterans and their families that are located all over the world. (www.va.gov) As the country and the military’s needs change, the VA needs to continue to evolve and grow. With this thought in mind, it is necessary to understand how the department is coping with the many different challenges that they are currently facing to effectively address the current issues and policy pitfalls. The most critical issues presently facing the VA, is the concern over long increasing wait-times and backlogs for services, which have emerged since 9/11 and are primarily the result of the growing

Veterans fought day-to-day to protect the lives of the American people. After deployment, veterans begin to struggle with going back to a normal citizen life. It becomes harder for veterans to maintain a job and keeping themselves sane. Countless of veterans compete with many negative factors to not affect veterans overall health. Thousands of veterans need assistance when having to adjust to what one would call a normal life.

When I returned from Iraq, I worked as a Veteran Representative for the County Veteran Service Office in Martinez. There, I managed over 1,500 veterans’ medical records and guided them to the right resources for their claims, including burial proceedings, Agent Orange related illness, and other disability and compensation-related issues. I’ve experienced the battle vets fight both overseas and at home; hence, another reason for my pursuit of nonviolent conflict resolution. During this time, I became frustrated by the limitations of help available to veterans in need. I saw that without a change in policy, there will always be a limit to change you can effect.

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”

The Department of Veterans Affairs are constantly performing and perfecting innovative services to veterans as they strive to provide quality services in the 21st century to veteran and their families. The Department of Veterans affairs hopes to build their services on the principles of being more person centered toward the care they provide, providing measurable results , and by continuing to look at future services needed for veterans. This paper will examine the challenges, plans, and goals that would need to be in place so that the Department of Veterans Affairs can continue to meet their strategic challenges.

As the New Republic noted in a May 21 2014 article, the VA’s problems are anything but new (Leighton-Walter). It is now 2016 and the problems that existed then still exist now. VA needs to reach out to vets, sell its service, rebuild trust and let vets know what benefits they have earned and how to get them (Kennedy). The biggest issues that veterans and advocates want to see addressed is the need for more doctors and resources, benefits adjudicators to get rid of wait lists, and the time it takes for a veteran to get care; monitoring of veterans facing mental health issues because 22 a day are killing themselves ("Advocates List 7"). Having more resources readily available will help relieve the VA from criticism and outrage they hear over veterans access to care and problems with the VA. “‘Be outraged for veterans who rely on an understaffed bureaucracy to manage their care,’” said Thomas Brennan, U.S Marine who has faced many difficulties in regards to receiving care “Be even more outraged for the doctors, nurses, and medical staff, who can’t provide for the care they want to give their patients. Veterans are not the only people suffering at the VA.” When a veteran blatantly comes out a speaks on behalf of not only veterans but doctors and nurses as well, it is impossible to ignore the cry for help. In order for this bureaucracy to fix the damage and flaws they have created, they need to crack down and listen to advocates and veterans and call for a reform. The VA needs to mend the broken relationship they have with the U.S. veterans by receiving more fundings and resources from the bureaucracy that has helped create their mess. Instead of trying to rush a reform program, the time should be taken to properly reconstruct the VA for the last and final time to get veterans the care that they deserve and have fought for in more than just one way. They give up so much of their lives to fight for other

Creating immediate access to care for veterans by reducing length of stay and readmission rates.

West and Weeks (2009) states that Veterans in VA care were more likely than other health care consumers to use each major category of service, but less likely to have commercial health insurance, particularly if they were rural residents. West and Weeks (2009) further confirms that nearly all men 65 years or older had Medicare, but few elderly veterans had Medicaid, less often than nonveterans. West and Weeks (2009) continues that “among men younger than 65 years, VA users were most likely to have Medicare or Medicaid (due to disability) or to be uninsured; nearly one in five rural VA users was uninsured throughout the year.” Urban-rural differences in utilization were small and not in agreement, regardless of service category or age group. As a result, the VA provided care to veterans who were sicker and less financially protected than other health care-using men, while veterans not in VA care appear to have had even better health and finances than nonveterans. Rural residents, predominantly men younger than 65 years, were at an inconvenience socio-economically, with respect to insurance coverage, and in reported