thedrifter
07-02-07, 07:44 AM
Keeping our promise
Rural America answered the military’s call — and now deserves better care
By John Kerry -
Posted : July 09, 2007
The government goes to great lengths to recruit young men and women to enlist in the military. Recruiters often travel the extra mile to convince young people from rural America that the military is right for them.
Unfortunately, it’s often been a completely different story once the boots come off and the service member comes home. The rural veterans’ care system has not been going the extra mile to care for young veterans who return home to live in the same communities the government once eagerly visited to recruit them.
It’s time we fund our veterans’ care system so that it can reach out to veterans living all over our country — a promise should be a promise, no matter where a service member calls home.
When it comes to fighting our wars, rural America has repeatedly answered the call. Americans from rural areas are more than twice as likely as other Americans to join the military; according to a recent study, rural America comprises 19 percent of the population but 44 percent of service recruits.
Now we must answer the call from rural America to reach out to wounded veterans wherever they live and guarantee that they can get the care they need, the care they were promised when they signed up to put their lives on the line.
Sadly, we still have a ways to go if we hope to match rhetoric with reality. Many of America’s 6 million rural veterans do not enjoy the excellent hospital care that other veterans receive. This is especially troubling because a 2004 study of 750,000 veterans found that rural veterans tended to have more serious and costly problems than urban veterans.
Poor coordination between the military and Department of Veterans Affairs has far too often led to delays in treatment, lost records and maddening battles with an impersonal bureaucracy whose indifference is the tragic inverse of the tight bonds that service members form with their comrades.
Medications sent in the mail often don’t arrive, gaps in Tricare leave soldiers in the cold, and federal community health centers serving rural areas often don’t take VA payments.
All of this adds up to a far lower standard of treatment that has left many of our rural vets dejected and less taken care of than they ought to be.
When the unacceptable conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center were made public, Americans were outraged that Washington wasn’t keeping its end of the bargain when our troops returned home. The government’s neglect of rural service members may be less visible, but it is no less unacceptable — and it requires our urgent attention.
I understand that outreach to rural veterans can be a difficult logistical challenge for an overburdened system. I understand that the average rural veteran in America currently travels 63 miles for care. Resources will inevitably concentrate where people do — in cities.
But we can and we must hold the government accountable for providing a reasonable standard of care for all vets.
I am relieved to see that the armed forces are scrambling to add care centers for brain injuries, including one in Vermont specifically designed to bring experts to remote areas. But more must be done. That is why I am co-sponsoring the Rural Health Care Improvement Act of 2007. The bill improves accessibility for those seeking treatment from VA facilities and strengthens VA’s capacity to reach out to rural vets.
We should not pit urban and rural veterans against each other in a competition for funding — by the accident of geography, America should never have to choose between service members who were ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for this country. We can care for them all. We just have to choose to do so — and put health care for troops ahead of tax cuts for millionaires.
This is about meeting the solemn commitment we’ve already made: that when an American goes off to war, he will be provided for.
Whether you’re from Cambridge or Stockbridge, no veteran should be lacking adequate health care.
That’s a promise America must keep.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., is serving his fourth term in the Senate.
Ellie
Rural America answered the military’s call — and now deserves better care
By John Kerry -
Posted : July 09, 2007
The government goes to great lengths to recruit young men and women to enlist in the military. Recruiters often travel the extra mile to convince young people from rural America that the military is right for them.
Unfortunately, it’s often been a completely different story once the boots come off and the service member comes home. The rural veterans’ care system has not been going the extra mile to care for young veterans who return home to live in the same communities the government once eagerly visited to recruit them.
It’s time we fund our veterans’ care system so that it can reach out to veterans living all over our country — a promise should be a promise, no matter where a service member calls home.
When it comes to fighting our wars, rural America has repeatedly answered the call. Americans from rural areas are more than twice as likely as other Americans to join the military; according to a recent study, rural America comprises 19 percent of the population but 44 percent of service recruits.
Now we must answer the call from rural America to reach out to wounded veterans wherever they live and guarantee that they can get the care they need, the care they were promised when they signed up to put their lives on the line.
Sadly, we still have a ways to go if we hope to match rhetoric with reality. Many of America’s 6 million rural veterans do not enjoy the excellent hospital care that other veterans receive. This is especially troubling because a 2004 study of 750,000 veterans found that rural veterans tended to have more serious and costly problems than urban veterans.
Poor coordination between the military and Department of Veterans Affairs has far too often led to delays in treatment, lost records and maddening battles with an impersonal bureaucracy whose indifference is the tragic inverse of the tight bonds that service members form with their comrades.
Medications sent in the mail often don’t arrive, gaps in Tricare leave soldiers in the cold, and federal community health centers serving rural areas often don’t take VA payments.
All of this adds up to a far lower standard of treatment that has left many of our rural vets dejected and less taken care of than they ought to be.
When the unacceptable conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center were made public, Americans were outraged that Washington wasn’t keeping its end of the bargain when our troops returned home. The government’s neglect of rural service members may be less visible, but it is no less unacceptable — and it requires our urgent attention.
I understand that outreach to rural veterans can be a difficult logistical challenge for an overburdened system. I understand that the average rural veteran in America currently travels 63 miles for care. Resources will inevitably concentrate where people do — in cities.
But we can and we must hold the government accountable for providing a reasonable standard of care for all vets.
I am relieved to see that the armed forces are scrambling to add care centers for brain injuries, including one in Vermont specifically designed to bring experts to remote areas. But more must be done. That is why I am co-sponsoring the Rural Health Care Improvement Act of 2007. The bill improves accessibility for those seeking treatment from VA facilities and strengthens VA’s capacity to reach out to rural vets.
We should not pit urban and rural veterans against each other in a competition for funding — by the accident of geography, America should never have to choose between service members who were ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for this country. We can care for them all. We just have to choose to do so — and put health care for troops ahead of tax cuts for millionaires.
This is about meeting the solemn commitment we’ve already made: that when an American goes off to war, he will be provided for.
Whether you’re from Cambridge or Stockbridge, no veteran should be lacking adequate health care.
That’s a promise America must keep.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., is serving his fourth term in the Senate.
Ellie