untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Joan McCarterRSS
Daily Kos staff
WED MAY 21, 2014 AT 01:00 PM PDT
Republican Medicaid refusal leaves over 250,000 veterans uninsured
byJoan McCarter
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Retired Army 1st Sgt. William Staude, of Elliott, Pa., salutes the Colors being carried by Soldiers from the 316th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, stationed in Coraopolis, Pa., as they march past him during the Veterans Day parade in downtown Pittsburgh, Nov. 11, 2011.
Parades are great, but how about we give them some health care?
Republicans sure have a lot to say about our veterans and the country's need do support them, but when it comes time to act? They filibuster funding for an expansion of their healthcare program. They also leave 258,600 veterans uninsured. That's how many low-income veterans don't have access to health care through the Veteran's Administration and don't have access to Medicaid because their Republican lawmakers have refused to take the Obamacare expansion.
According to a report by Pew using analysis from the Urban Institute, approximately 258,600 of those veterans are living below the poverty line in states refusing to expand Medicaid. Without veteran's benefits—and with incomes too low to qualify for subsidies to use on the state exchanges—these veterans are left without affordable coverage options.
Not all veterans can use the VA system. To be eligible, a veteran would have to have at least two continuous years of military service or have been disabled in the line of duty. Plenty more veterans don't live near enough to a VA hospital to be able to regularly get treatment there. They can be dual-eligible, getting assistance from both Medicaid and the VA, but only where Medicaid is available. And in about two dozen states, it's not.
So when the Republican noise machine gets going full blast over the VA healthcare scandal, don't forget what the larger scandal is: Republicans are denying care to hundreds of thousands of veterans out of pure political spite.
by alypsee1 on Wed May 21, 2014 at 01:30:45 PM PDT
Non service connected disabilty pension (6+ / 0-)
Not enough vets know about this:
Eligibility Requirements
Pension benefits are needs-based and your "countable" family income must fall below the yearly limit set by law. Veterans must have least 90 days of active duty, including one day during a wartime period. If the active duty occurred after September 7, 1980, you must have served at least 24 months or the full period that you were called up (with some exceptions). You must also be:
Age 65 or older with limited or no income, OR
Totally and permanently disabled, OR
A patient in a nursing home receiving skilled nursing care, OR
Receiving Social Security Disability Insurance, OR
Receiving Supplemental Security Income
The Veteran must have met the service requirements above for surviving spouses and children applying for the Survivors Pension.
Full health care (no dental)
"The good Earth — we could have saved it, but we were too damn cheap and lazy." Kurt Vonnegut - "A Man Without a Country", 2005. |
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