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.
“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.
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.
REGULATORY CITATION(S): Army Regulation (AR) 635-200 provides the basic authority for the separation of enlisted personnel. Paragraph 5-11 specifically provides that Soldiers who were not medically qualified under procurement medical fitness standards, when accepted for enlistment, or who became medically disqualified under these standards prior to entry on active duty or active duty training or initial entry training will be separated. A medical proceeding, regardless of the date completed, must establish that a medical condition was identified by appropriate medical authority within six months of the Soldier’s initial entrance on active duty, that the condition would have permanently or temporarily disqualified the Soldier for entry into the military service had it been detected at that time, and the medical condition does not disqualify the Soldier from retention in the service under the provisions of AR 40-501, Chapter
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 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed by President Barack Obama is a significant change of the American healthcare system since insurance plans programs like Medicare and Medicaid (“Introduction to”). As a result, “It is also one of the most hotly contested, publicly maligned, and politically divisive pieces of legislation the country has ever seen” (“Introduction to”). The Affordable Care Act should be changed because it grants the government too much control over the citizen’s healthcare or the lack of individual freedom to choose affordable health insurance.
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
It is understandable that some people may disagree on improvement of veteran care due to simple things like the fact that “veterans were getting addicted….even dying, from over prescription,” when they asked for assistance with their PTSD, but when all things are considered, veterans risked their lives for freedom. People should be able to take the time to take care of those who were willing to give their lives for freedom. Colby Buzzel says “if you want to know what the price of freedom looks like, go to a V.A. waiting room- wheelchairs, missing limbs, walking wounded.” These are all things that veterans have to go through to ensure freedom. And that is added to their struggle of PTSD. So, before people say that veteran care for PTSD does not need improvement, they need to think about whether or not they are willing to pay the same price that these veterans were willing to
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.
Training should include the entire team from staff, social services, and providers. The education tools would outline how to perform an accurate health assessment, to identify the characteristics of each generation who served any psychological symptoms and major health issues associated with the defined service period. Additional, educating the team of the resources available is a priority for success. Optimizing the EMR to include the patient’s entire record, setting up templates to include auto referrals and other alerts will aid in early identification as well, to help remove the barriers. Additional barriers to implementation would include the lack of transparency due to a misconception of treatment at the VA or resources available. Many patients prefer to remain silent regarding their symptoms to avoid any negative response to their careers, military ranking, as well as avoiding negative stigma. This could lead to missing or lack of information which could delay the verification of resources and benefits. The team should be educated around not assuming services are being provided without clarification. Building a provider patient trusting relationship to allow for open communication can be a
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.
Any other discharge can result in the loss of Veterans Affairs
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.
...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.