Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain released his proposed health aid package for U.S. veterans over the weekend, and among the most prominent aspects of his design are a more rapid response to veterans' medical needs, a Veterans' Care Access Card and a targeted feat to address the necessarily of female veterans world Health Organization are the victims of sexual assault. While veterans groups suppose they suffer no objections to the senator's proposals, they are wary that a design to air vets to private doctors will drive up the price of government-funded care.
Among the specifics of McCain's plan:
� To aid vets wHO can't get under one's skin to a Veterans Affairs hospital because of geographic constraints, long waiting lists or a lack of specialized facilities, he proposes that no vet have to drive more than an 60 minutes for aid and that they receive routine care within a week, urgent care inside 24 hours and specialty care inside a month.
� A Veterans' Care Access Card would be created, which would postscript ordinary VA care for low-income veterans and those with illnesses or injuries incurred during military avail, permitting those who can't get "timely and seize" care at a VA facility to receive upkeep at a private one.
� He would build on his co-authored Wounded Warrior Act, which was among the first lawmaking to address injuries specific to the modern war on terror by providing enhanced screening and treatment.
� He called for a better response from the VA to the "specialized health care needs of women veterans, including victims of sexual assault."
� He would establish a Wounded Warrior Resource Center, which would give vets accessible information and clear pathways to rehabilitation, as well as text file the semipermanent needs of the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.
� He would expand educational programs for family members of veterans to learn them how to decently care for their injured or ill loved ones.
� An eight-point be after would be enacted to overhaul the Veterans Disability system, which includes comprehensive, ongoing training for VA employees world Health Organization process claims, more answerableness for claims processors, converting the claims-processing system into a paperless one that will provide instant hunting capability, and providing vets with disabilities the proper treatment, rehabilitation and training they indigence to return to generative, fulfilling lives.
Senator McCain, world Health Organization is a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, where he sustained dangerous injuries as a captive in a prisoner-of-war camp, has also proposed what he called an "aggressive program to reintegrate veterans into civilian society." That plan includes his recent support for the "GI Bill for the 21 Century," as well as an increase in outreach to homeless veterans to provide transitional housing, proper health and disability benefits, and job training. It also includes efforts to provide meaningful employment to veterans in federal positions and secure that they are not discriminated against in hiring by employers.
Finally, McCain vowed to persist in working to increase the death gratuity benefit for the families of veterans who are killed in combat, an effort he has supported in the past, including in 2003, when he co-sponsored legislating to forked the payment.
Joe Davis, Director of Public Affairs for the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. said he had no real objections to what McCain was proposing, simply he vowed to prevent a close eye on it. "These are all things that are either going on already or need more 'oomph' to get them going in Washington," aforementioned Davis. "There's nothing controversial about it."
The one vista of McCain's proposal that Davis aforementioned he and many of his cohorts are closely monitoring is the Access Card, which Davis wants to do sure doesn't end up driving veterans away from the VA to the private sector for maintenance. "There is merit to helping some veterans world Health Organization live in extremely rural areas to get charge," he said. "But we want to make sure it's non the start of a process that will raise medical prices because the VA volition have to pay that non-VA doctor's fees, which will non be the same as the invoice if the government provided the care."
Rival presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama has proposed a plan that has a number of similar elements. His includes a vow to permit more veterans to access VA tending by wheeling back a 2003 banning that excluded some "modest income" veterans, and would increase maintenance for polytrauma vision deterioration, prosthetics, spinal cord injuries and women's health. Additionally, it would establish a "zero tolerance" policy for veterans falling into homelessness by expanding programs to help them avoid reach that status.
Obama has also pledged to fight employment discrimination against vets, help make the transition to civilian life easier, update paper records to an electronic system and to the full fund the VA. He has besides vowed to expand veteran soldier centers and improve mental health intervention and traumatic brain injury care.
Davis aforementioned both plans offer benefits that are very unspoiled for veterans but that the "hardest test" volition be acquiring the items on a budget and passed through Congress.
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