Would you believe me if I told you that many veterans don’t have healthcare or cannot afford it? What? Crazy right? Veterans give their life for our country yet we cannot give them simple healthcare. Many are plagued with mental illnesses and disorders. Most receive compensation, but how long would that money last if they had to pay bills on top of medical bills. Some have children they have to look after. Who’s paying all of this? Why is our economy like this? Here’s why. One of the struggles for veterans is how much the healthcare costs. For a patient with PTSD the cost averaged $8,300. For PTSD-specific therapy the cost is $4,100. A patient with T.B.I., or traumatic brain injury, the initial cost is $11,700. If they had both PTSD and TBI then the cost is $13,800. The average cost of the first year’s treatment for a patient with neither diagnosis was $2,400. (Cushman Jr.)
As well as the initial cost of health care, many cannot live off of disability with children and spouses and pay everyday fees. For a veteran with PTSD and 50% service connected disability with a spouse and a child receive $978.64 a month. This is about $11,745 a year. (VA Benefits) Lower class income is from $0 - $35,000. Unless the
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In order to qualify for health services with VA benefits they have to have an honorable or general discharge. If they are discharged with bad conduct or a dishonorable discharge then they will not be eligible for health care. You also must have served for 24 continuous months in active military, naval, or air service. They could also have served as a National Guard member or reservist called to active duty and completed their full call up period. Their discharge status’ are the main key to getting disability benefits and health care through veterans affairs. The minimal requirements might not apply to veterans that were discharged for hardship, disability during line of duty or early discharge.
The federal government have the mandatory regulation for helping veterans who have disability 30 percent or more have a chance to work in government departments if one of the department has opening job
Soldiers, both men and women, risk their lives fighting for our country and when they come home they receive far fewer benefits than would be expected. Throughout history the support for veterans has lessened. The amount of money that is provided to veterans for healthcare and housing after returning to the states has severely decreased since WWI.
When a soldier enlists in the United States military they make a promise to serve and protect our nation, putting their lives at risk to help keep America safe. Sadly when they finish their service they unknowingly enlist themselves in another war: to receive proper health care from VA. Things like long waiting times, understaffed facilities, and few care options for veterans in rural areas are just the beginning of the problems plaguing VA health care. Horrifying issues that are killing our veteran are beginning to surface such as employees falsifying records, outdated facilities spreading diseases, and patient neglect; all while key VA officials continue to scramble to cover things up. Our government must intervene quickly to fix the growing problems with VA health care so our veterans receive the care they were promised and should be receiving.
“Factors Affecting Health Care” (50-55) Demonstrates the sacrifices and how difficult it is for veterans to receive healthcare from the Department of Veteran Affairs.
Many times students may have ADA issues when returning from active duty. These issues may or may not have been diagnosed upon discharge. It is important to be familiar with how the law affects student veterans and where Veterans Affairs may be able to effectively assist with the needs of these disabled student veterans.
The United States has thousands of veterans and many of them suffer from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The care for veterans must be improved. Veteran care needs to be improved because they are not getting the proper care that they need, not receiving credit for their service, and they were willing to pay the ultimate price for freedom, yet people will not pay the price of time to help them.
In 2010, veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) cost the government about $1.3 billion (United States of America 17). This is an enormous amount of money, but it hasn’t even been helping veterans. Many vets aren’t finishing treatment but continue to receive disability checks from the Veterans Health Administration, abbreviated to VHA. Not only this, but some veterans are faking their way into the system and evading the diagnosis process by coming up with an tall tale. It is on the Veteran’s Affairs (VA) to determine whether these stories are fake (Department of Veterans’ Affairs), which is many times impossible to regulate. New laws that are being passed that make it easier for veterans to receive disability checks are not helping this problem either (Brown and Thompson 43). The government is spending too much money on a system that is failing our veterans; the public should not have to pay when the money is going to waste on misdiagnosis, failing treatment, and unjust laws.
... once they get discharged from the military, since many injuries surface years later or go undetected. Can you imagine a future where a mandatory draft will be needed because young men and women will not join the military? The fight for veteran healthcare is a battle that veterans can’t afford to lose.
As a reservist or National Guard member, you would have to be called to active duty other than training. After 1980 the veteran would have had to serve 24 continuous months, this might not apply to you for hardship, early out or a service connected disability.
Why then is this area of healthcare both so expensive and common? One reason could be in the professionals in the field themselves. Mental health care professionals may request higher pay or more vacation time because “they deal with dangerous patients-although they have publicly proclaimed that mental illness is a disease like any other” (Sartorius). These professionals are supposed to advocate for their patients in society because of the stigmas surrounding them, yet these stigmas in turn allow them to ask for higher pay because society stereotypes their work as being extremely taxing. These facilities sometimes take advantage of the stereotypes of their work in the quality of care their patients receive as well. For example, the World Health Organization’s Mental Health Policy Coordinator, Michelle Funk, commented on the quality of care people with mental health disabilities receive. She says, “people in mental health facilities often are exposed to high levels of abuse and violence...Their living conditions are inhumane and the treatment they receive is degrading… people can be over medicated to keep them docile and easy to manage”
Veterans risked their lives for our freedom, and get nothing in return. They come back and they do not get much help, or they suffer for the rest of their lives. I feel that we need to put more money and resources into helping them with the experiences that they had. Many have problems getting back into the role of society. Others can not overcome the losses of friends or the traumas they have suffered.
When it comes to healthcare, for many people the option between eating and health insurance is simple - I have to eat now, and health insurance (right now) is unnecessary and more of an academic concern. My opinion, for what it's worth, is that one of the primary focuses of the ACA, mandating that everyone becomes insured, was flawed to the extent that it does not truly answer the more pressing issue of how to make the delivery of healthcare more affordable. Affordability via maintaining insurance coverage (poorly) addresses the symptom rather than the root cause. The ACA is not the solution to our healthcare issues.
Any other discharge can result in the loss of Veterans Affairs
...ue to numerous medical errors. With the amount of medical errors that currently do occur which is a current health care issue it cost the health care billions of dollar each year to fix the mistakes that were made.
America's government not putting enough money in the budget means it coming our of ours. Mental health care coming out of pocket is ridiculously expensive .A quarter of the 15.7 million Americans who received mental health care listed themselves as the main payer for the services. The majority of those who did seek outpatient treatment had out-of-pocket costs between $100 and $5,000. If the United State had a bigger budget for mental health care then paying for it would not be so expensive.