Bush Institute Agressively Promotes Hiring Veterans

Since the founding of our country, returning veterans have found their homecoming a mixed bag. Often times they came home to a country in the throes of post war recessions where jobs were tight and opportunities rare. Those that served in combat abroad often brought their own unique baggage home in the form of physical and psychological wounds. They faced the daunting prospect of settling back into a civilian society that was ill prepared to deal with these returning warriors. 

The modern era ushered in national campaigns to hire returning veterans, emphasizing their maturity, discipline, and skill sets forged in the fire of military experience. Our country has always felt that it is the least it could do to for those that have served. But some vets seemed easier to hire, often times because they assimilated back into the routine of civilian life fairly easily, emotionally and psychologically. 

A dialogue started about forty years ago concerning the psychological trauma of combat. Since the beginning of time combatants have always born the mental effects of war. It can’t be helped. Some scar deeper than others but everyone who has ever fought in war carries the experience for life. For the most severely psychologically impacted an old fashioned colloquialism referred to it as being “shell shocked”. The contemporary name for the condition is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). 

Returning vets with PTSD are often treated differently than those with visible physical wounds. There is an unspoken unsettledness on the part of many in our society as to how “normal” these vets are. Of course any of us that have served in the armed forces know that PTSD is more the norm than not, but those that suffer from it are blatantly underserved in the job market by employers that fear that these victims aren’t fit for the workplace. This is what makes former President George W. Bush’s speech this week so generous and timely.

President Bush announced that the Bush Institute has pulled together other groups to aggressively promote the assimilation and hiring of those returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also said that it was time we drop the “D” from PTSD and understand that this a treatable like any other kind of illness. "Employers would not hesitate to hire an employee getting treated for a medical condition like diabetes or high blood pressure and they should not hesitate to hire veterans getting treated for post-traumatic stress," he said.

This is a great step in helping returning vets assimilate back into their families, communities, and the job market. Hopefully, it will also spur Congress and the Administration to better fund the health and welfare of those that have sacrificed for the country.

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It’s Time for Veterans to have a Choice in Medical Care

                                    Don’t you think they have earned it? 

There is more than one core incompetency with the Veterans Health Administration. I guess you can have more than one core when you have a multi-cored monstrosity called the Veterans Administration. Regardless, the end result is that thousands of men and women who served and sacrificed for our country are in need of medical care, and they are waiting. In fact they wait far longer for care than your standard Medicare patient. Now the waiting is taking a toll on lives.

I waited for 3 years to have my back injury addressed by the VA. It was an injury that I received on active duty in 2008. The system was so backlogged that even an active duty injury was left unintended for that long. But I’m lucky compared to many of my comrades. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs released a document, which was made public by CNN, about an investigation that was conducted in just two VA hospitals in Georgia and South Carolina. The investigation dealt with cancer patients in 2010 and 2011. 

Apparently nineteen patients died over that two year period due to a delay in receiving a consult for fundamental screenings like colonoscopies. It was a remarkable lack of basic diagnostic care that is available to practically anyone else that isn’t a veteran. The investigation of those two VA hospitals also found at least eighty other patients that have become severely ill with advanced stages of cancer because the disease wasn’t diagnosed or a consult was not given for diagnostic tests. There are wonderful doctors and medical professionals that are part of the VA but a lack of adequate systems and processes that exist in even the most subpar civilian hospitals have infected the healthcare infrastructure of the only option that veterans have.

It’s time that Veterans have the same rights as Medicaid patients. Its time veterans have a choice to see any doctor any where they choose. In many cases VA doctors are so far away from patient’s homes that they have to travel at their own expense and stay in hotels awaiting treatment. Instead they should have the right to see their local doctors.

 If Veterans could see private doctors they certainly would not be waiting 9 months just to see a specialist. And the great thing about choice is the Veteran could just take his business elsewhere if the wait were too long. These are medical benefits veterans have earned through fighting in wars for our country. Our Veterans own their benefits and should have the right to use them the same way Medicaid and Medicare patients can, at their choice of doctors and hospitals.

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Veterans Health Administration

There is more than one core incompetency with the Veterans Health Administration. I guess you can have more than one core when you have a multi-cored monstrosity called the Veterans Administration. Regardless, the end result is that thousands of men and women who served and sacrificed for our country are in need of medical care, and they are waiting. In fact they wait far longer for care than your standard Medicare patient. Now the waiting is taking a toll in lives.

I waited for nine months to have my back injury addressed by the VA. It was an injury that I received on active duty, but the system was so backlogged that even an active duty injury was left unintended for that long. But I’m lucky compared to many of my comrades. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs released a document, which was made public by CNN, about an investigation that was conducted in just two VA hospitals in Georgia and South Carolina. The investigation dealt with cancer patients in 2010 and 2011.

Apparently nineteen patients died over that two year period due to a delay in receiving a consult for fundamental screenings like colonoscopies. It was a remarkable lack of basic diagnostic care that is available to practically anyone else that isn’t a veteran. The investigation of those two VA hospitals also found at least eighty other patients that have become severely ill with advanced stages of cancer because the disease wasn’t diagnosed or a consult was not given for diagnostic tests. There are wonderful doctors and medical professionals that are part of the VA but a lack of adequate systems and processes that exist in even the most subpar civilian hospitals have infected the healthcare infrastructure of the only option that veterans have.

There are many factors that can be blamed for this. There is a lack of funding on the part of Congress for veterans care. As the budget ax swings on Capitol Hill there seems to be a bipartisan willingness to cut veteran’s funding at the expense of those that have actually earned the right to be cared for. For the funds that have been specifically appropriated to alleviate the problems that were uncovered in the VA investigation, it appears that as much as half of them have been diverted to other areas. It has a number of our Congressional champions for veteran’s health issues wondering what in the world could be more important than saving the life of a person that put their life on the line for us.

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The Threat On The Home Front

There are clearly defined duties that the Constitution outlines for the federal government. Perhaps the most important is that of the Common Defense of the Nation. Most Americans acknowledge that as a given but they would probably be quick to add that the federal government is also responsible for ensuring that you have money to live on and lots of food in the fridge. This false presumption of what the government “owes” us obfuscates the true responsibilities of the government and has put the health and welfare of our Defenders in jeopardy.

Our country has been defended for the last three decades by a volunteer force of men and women. Before that time, military conscription occurred from time to time to supplement the ranks of those that enlisted. The one thing that everyone who has served in the military has in common is that they took an oath to defend our country and were prepared to sacrifice everything, including their lives. For the last 10 years those who have sacrificed for our country have been relegated to the status of a second class citizen.

All warfare, especially modern warfare, has changed the nature of physical and mental harm to soldiers. Better technology and equipment for our soldiers, in recent years, have lowered the mortality rate but increased the number of injured. The average Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran is currently receiving $395 per month from the VA for their line of duty disabilities; compare that to the average person on Social Security Disabilities receiving over $895 per month. And I had to wait 2 two and a half years for the VA to process my claim. 

The average Social Security Disabilities claim process takes on average three to six months.Now these are people who’ve never served our country or done anything for our nation and in many cases are just looking for a hand out when their welfare and or unemployment runs out, according to a recent US Senate Committee investigation. A recent Senate audit of disability claims over the last ten years finds that as many as 25% of those Americans receiving disability did not meet the legal threshold for receiving benefits!(See 60 minutes story)

If a Veteran is seriously injured physically and/or mentally as a result of their military service and then has to wait 2 to 3 years for the VA to process their claims. This may account for why so many Veterans end up homeless after serving our country. Combat Veterans ending up homeless is a moral outrage and we should be ashamed as a nation.Every member of Congress has a Veterans’ liaison in their office that helps Veterans in their district navigate the claims process.

So every member knows the problems first hand and yet nothing has been done to change the facts on the ground. If we spent a fraction of the money Washington wastes every year on studying the mating habits of snails we could solve the VA problems that threaten our national security. When I joined the US military in 2005 along with millions of my brothers and sisters in Arms, in the middle of a bloody war in Iraq, the government made a contract with us.

If we get killed or injured while serving, the government will take care of us and our families. Period. If the US Government continues to fail to help those returning home, many Americans will decide not to join the US Military and that will create a serious national security challenge. 

 

The President, the Defense Department, and Congress better wake up, and fast, to the injustice that they have created by this inequality in their treatment of veterans vis-a-vis the rest of those fine Americans clamoring for government assistance. They may wake up one morning and realize that many of these great men and women in the military have decided it’s not worth fighting for a country that does not value them.

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Has our Government Turned Its Back on our Veterans?

There are very defined duties that the Constitution outlines for the federal government. Perhaps the most important is that of the Common Defense of the Nation. Most Americans acknowledge that as a given but they would probably be quick to add that the federal government is also responsible for ensuring that you have money to live on and lots of food in the fridge.

This false presumption of what the government “owes” us obfuscates the true responsibilities of the government and has put the health and welfare of the Defenders in jeopardy.Our country has been defended for the last three decades by a volunteer force of men and women. Before that time, military conscription occurred from time to time to supplement to ranks of those that enlisted.

The one thing that everyone who has served in the military has in common is that they took an oath to protect this country and were prepared to sacrifice many things, including their life, to do such a thing. For the last twenty years those who have sacrificed for our country have been relegated to the status of a second class citizen.

All warfare, especially modern warfare, has changed the nature of physical and mental harm to soldiers. Better technology and equipment for our soldiers in recent years have lowered the mortality rate but increased the number of injured. We now have a flood of disabled veterans, people who have sacrificed for us, on disability but receiving disability benefits that are far less than those receiving disability in the of citizen population. 

That is shameful.

To make matters worse for our veterans they are stuck in a medical system, the Veterans Health Administration, which is horrendous in its ability to meet the serious physical and mental health needs of those that have served this nation. Veterans have no choice. The federal government will allow them to be treated only in clinics and hospitals that are run and regulated by the Veterans Health Administration if they wish to have their treatment paid for. 

The civilians that have never served but are on public assistance or Social Security disability, have far greater benefits and choices in higher quality health care than veterans. To add insult to injury (no pun intended). A recent Senate audit of disability claims in the last ten years finds that as many as 25% of those Americans receiving disability did not meet the legal threshold for receiving benefits!

The President, the Defense Department, and Congress better wake up, and fast, to the injustice that they have created by this inequality in their treatment of veterans vis-a-vis the rest of those fine Americans clamoring for government assistance. They may wake up one morning and realize that many of these great men and women in the military have decided it’s not worth fighting for a country that does not value them.

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