These days, healthcare reform is on the mind of most Americans and the issue didn’t escape attention at the recent National Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Phoenix, where President Barack Obama was the keynote speaker.
Though Obama touched on a variety of subjects during his 33-minute speech to about 2,000 mostly-older veterans, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, healthcare for veterans was a major issue during the dissertation. “Whether you've left the service in 2009 or 1949, we will fulfill our responsibility to deliver the benefits and care that you earned,” Obama said as he entered into the portion of his speech that centered on improvement of care for veterans of all ages. “We're dramatically increasing funding for veterans health care. This includes hundreds of millions of dollars to serve veterans in rural areas, as well as the unique needs of our growing number of women veterans. We're restoring access to VA healthcare for a half-million veterans who lost their eligibility in recent years...”
While Obama admitted that healthcare reform is at the forefront of discussions in homes throughout the U.S. lately, veterans need not worry that any upcoming changes might affect them, he stressed. “One thing that reform won't change is veterans' health care. No one is going to take away your benefits -- that is the plain and simple truth. We're expanding access to your healthcare, not reducing it.”
Obama also promised to strive to reduce red tape and break through the bureaucracy that often results in backlogs and long waits for benefits applied for through the Department of Veterans Administration. This reform effort involves appealing to those who work with vets each day at the 57 regional VA offices to come up with better and more efficient ways of doing business. The best ideas garnered from these VA employees will then be funded and put into action.
The implantation of these new ideas, Obama told the veterans in attendance, will be funded by the largest increase in the Department of Veterans Administration budget in more than 30 years. The current proposed budget includes a 15 percent increase over last year’s funding and an additional $25 billion over the next five years.
“America's commitment to its veterans is not just lines on a budget. They are bonds that are sacred -- a sacred trust we're honor bound to uphold,” Obama concluded. “These are commitments that we make to the patriots who serve -- from the day they enlist to the day that they are laid to rest.”
For veterans with life-threatening diseases, like mesothelioma cancer, the issue of healthcare is even more pressing. Countless veterans are diagnosed with diseases that developed as a result of certain exposures during their time in the military [for example, Vietnam vets who were exposed to Agent Orange; Navy vets who inhaled asbestos while working on a U.S. naval ship during WWII]. For these ailing vets and their families, quality healthcare may lead to an increase in quality of life, and the potential for more time together as a family.
