Peter Katel Caring For Veterans

There are serious problems with the Department of Veterans Affairs that need to change to give adequate benefits to those that need the Department’s services. There have been many articles telling of the hardships that veterans have had to go through to get the benefits that they deserve for fighting and getting injured in their service to the United States Armed Forces. Common sense seems to dictate that the government would take care of the veterans that served their country, and yet it seems only the opposite is happening. There have been reports of many veterans having to fight for months, if not years, to receive the proper care with benefits from the Department even after having fought the wars for our country. All of this extra fighting …show more content…
According to “Caring for Veterans” by Peter Katel in 2010 the average veteran had to wait around six months to just get a decision on their disability claim. While that is quite a bit of time, it pales in comparison to “another 200,000 have waited an average of five years for a decision on an appeal.” That is truly atrocious that those who fought for our country have to wait so long on decisions that can have a significant impact on the way that they live the rest of their lives. Peter Katel wrote about the experiences of a veteran infantryman John Lamie. Lamie described on how even with his severe case of PTSD and traumatic brain injury he was only getting disability checks of $83. The fact that our veteran is disabled enough to need to receive a check and yet received less than enough to go to grocery store to feed his family of five is sickening. Someone who went on multiple tours in the Afghanistan war should not have to call and as Lamie described it “beg — I don’t mean ask nicely, I mean beg” to get the compensation that was promised if there were injuries resulting in the time that he served. 1 million claims were backlogged at the VA in 2010. 1 million veterans from multiple wars were still struggling to get the compensation and care that they deserve to receive. While five years have passed since these incidents, which most of the backlogging seems to have been taken care of, the incidents have led to many veterans not trusting, understandingly so, the VA for the support that it should, and is now working very hard to give them. The new VA Secretary Robert A. McDonald stated last year that he is interested in getting the best care possible for the veterans that need it. For the effort that he is putting into getting the needed care I