Health Care Issues

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).

The issue of veterans’ health care has dominated public discourse for many years, with various statistics

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)

Throughout the history of the United States the government has felt a responsibility to care for those who defend the freedom of the United States. This responsibility is to make sure that our veterans have the best care possible when they return home from war. Since its establishment, the Veterans Affairs (VA) has come under fire from all angles, saying that they are not offering the best possible care for our Veterans. Throughout history yellow journalism has been found to destroy some organizations. The VA is an organization who has experienced the effects of yellow journalism and they are trying to recover. The VA is taking the yellow journalism and turning it into constructive criticism in order to improve their services for the United States Veterans.

Almost 60% of all veterans say that the VA is doing “only fair” or a “poor” job at taking care of the problems faced by serviceman (Chandrasekaren). Current soldiers, as well as veterans, are facing problems like not be able to find a job because of a disability or not receiving compensation for an injury that occurred while in the service. Many wait months upon months just to be seen by a doctor. The men and women protecting this country deserve the best help available, and they are receiving very little or no help at all. Health care, benefits, and simply having money to survive are not problems that these individuals need to be facing after putting their lives on the line for us. Veterans need help, and our

Josh Hicks, author at The Washing Post, says that the Veterans Affairs has an ongoing problem of delays in servicing veterans. “Phoenix VA hospital kept delays off the books with secret wait lists that allegedly included dozens of patients who died while waiting for care” (Hicks 1). “Several patients died at an Atlanta clinic because of mismanagement” (Hicks 1). “A Department clinic in Fort Collins, Colorado, falsified appointment records to give the impression that staff doctors saw patients within the agency’s goal of 14 days” (Hicks 1). In addition to these issues, other veterans waiting to hear if their disability claims had been approved for care were waiting in excess of 125 days without determination. Retired four-star Army General Eric Shinseki, serving

Many ways are used to measure how much Americans values life. Obviously, good health is a major factor of being happy and satisfied with an Americans’ life. People also place family, friends, and owners potential is very high on the list of value for health care insurance. Health care has become the stress to every person’s life. Health care controls everything a person does due to the draw backsdrawbacks of not having it when it is necessary, like breaking an arm or coming down with a deathly illness. You have to introduce your quotations “Health care reform will be on the agenda for future sessions of Congress, because the economic pressures of rising health care costs on the federal government, business, and

Much like the people who serve and will ultimately utilize this organization, The Veterans administration (VA) has a set of core values each member of the armed forces live by: integrity, respect, excellence, advocacy and commitment. The VA has always signified a place of hope and security for veterans past and present. For those who serve the expectation is that when they need medical, dental, housing, educational and other assistance the VA would be there. Marred by problems over the years and recently in the media highlighted for long wait times to receive medical attention , bureaucratic red tape to receive the benefits these veterans have earned, some have paid the ultimate price (death) which they expected to happen in some foreign land not at home.

Thomas Brennan, a U.S Marine Veteran and Purple Heart Recipient from North Carolina, is tragically the depiction of why the VA needs reconstruction and more resources. When calling about his prescription for his intense migraines he get as a result to a traumatic brain injury, he was told for the third time that they [the VA] forgot to fill the prescription (Jones). “‘And when you’re sitting at home like this, you don’t feel like you matter to the doctors who are supposed to take care of you,’” said Brennan to one of the many VA officials he had to talk to when asking about his prescription. The 2014 Veteran's Choice Program was made to liberate Veteran’s from complications like this.

Tarnished by lack of efficiency, communication and a vision are inconsistent and divided. My findings of evidence paralleled with my literature reviews because this issue is starting to emerge as a imminent threat to the structural failures that the veterans rely on. The LACK of justice is the primary value my stance emphasizes. As citizens, we are expected to follow guidelines, laws, and abide by or pay the consequences. Both the DoD and the VA have violated all agreements and initiatives to collaborate to form a larger accessible health care system and have neglected to take initiative. Veterans risk their lives to support the prosperity and freedom of the United States, and in return they are marginalized in a sense that provisions within these complex bureaucracies make it difficult for them to be treated. The Old Public Administration has proven to be a detriment to the purpose of the departments and raises the question as to whether the veterans they neglect are really a concern at

However as of more recent, the focus has been to cut spending and this in turn has affected most notably, Veterans Affairs (VA) and their health programs. According to the VA, “VA is charged with fulfilling President Lincoln’s promise to care for those “who shall have borne the battle, and for ” their families and their survivors. To support this mission, the 2016 Budget provides $70.2 billion in discretionary funding for VA, a 7.9 percent increase above the 2015 enacted level. In addition, the budget includes $3.2 billion in estimated medical care collections, for a total discretionary budget authority of $73.5 billion (which includes $3.2 billion in Medical Care Collections) and $95.3 billion for VA’s mandatory benefit programs.” This increase in budgetary spending can be deceiving as the VA is also seeing an increase in the amount of veterans claiming benefits. So although there is a budgetary increase, it is not enough (a deficit) to fulfill all claims made by veterans and/or their families and therefore is causing the VA to make cutbacks in both military construction efforts, but more importantly in medical benefits that veterans receive. For instance, improving veterans access to medical care to include strengthening their benefits program is a matter of priority. As has been recently of subject in the news, wait times for veterans has been extreme and inefficient, at times to the detriment of the health of veterans. Although the increase is aimed at providing more physicians and improving the VA’s “physical” infrastructure, the budgetary increase lacks the foresight to address the growing veteran population in concurrence with the needed changes that are being proposed. In an article published in Military Times on

The men and women who serve our country risk their lives every single day to protect their country and the people in it. Out of all sacrifices one could make, going to war to protect their country is the largest offering a human will ever be able to make. It is not of monetary value that these sacrifices are paid, but rather in blood. And if these soldiers are able to come home, treatment is less than mediocre. A census report shows, “There [is] 21.8 million veterans of the U.S. armed forces as of 2014” (Risen). With that large of a number of people to take care of, it is not always easy to help everyone. In continuation, only 8.3 million veterans are receiving veterans affairs benefits and care (“By the Numbers: Veterans”). The amount

One financial problem the healthcare industry is facing right now is healthcare collections. Healthcare collections have always been a financial problem to healthcare industries because of nonpayment from the uninsured and individuals who are uneducated about their health plans. Nonpayment to healthcare industries means a loss of revenue. A loss of revenue means that health care industries may run the risk of exhausting their financial resources and become unstable. This financial problem is very typical in the healthcare industry.

The Veterans Health Administration is the largest health care system in the U.S., with 92 million visits between 6.4 million patients in 2013. The VA has been blasted in the media lately due to various problems, some would argue that it should be dismantled others reformed. A veteran should not be forced to deal with the political posturing and backbiting that goes along with any bureaucracy. The Veteran Affairs or VA must come to grips with the problems it faces, an insufficient amount of health care workers to handle the increasing number of patient visits, a mismanagement of funds and services, and ineffective, unqualified or just plain poorly trained employees.

I feel that many health care providers are faced with daily struggles that consists of doing things that may go against their personal beliefs. However, when taking care of a patient it is their beliefs or practices that come forth and they need to be accommodated in order to make them feel comfortable and respected. Many health care providers struggle with putting their beliefs to the side. For example, a health care provider may not personally agree with abortion but if they have a patient that asks for information regarding the subject the providers’ principles cannot interfere with the factual information that needs to be explained to the patient. In health care it is necessary that workers respect others choices and beliefs and that they