AUGUSTA, Maine — Of the roughly 150,000 veterans living in Maine, 40-50 percent don’t use services that they’re entitled to through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The VA is working to change that, according to Dr. Tommy Sowers, the department’s assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs. Sowers visited Maine Wednesday, touring the VA’s Togus medical center in Augusta and convening a roundtable discussion with area veterans groups and officials at the nearby Maine Veterans Home.
“You can’t offer benefits to somebody who doesn’t know that they’re eligible,” he said in a telephone interview following the morning’s events. “That’s clearly something the VA needs to do better.”
A recent analysis by McClatchy Newspapers found that more than half of American veterans reported having little or no understanding of the benefits they are entitled to, even as the VA has stepped up efforts to link returning soldiers with help and services.
Younger veterans who served in the post-9/11 war period were better versed in their benefits, but 40 percent still said they had little to no understanding of them. Among all veterans, 59 percent described their understanding of available benefits as “a little” or “not at all,” according to the analysis, which examined the VA‘s 2010 National Survey of Veterans and state benefits data.
“At various points in a veteran’s life, benefits become much more salient,” Sowers said. “We need to make sure the message that we’re delivering to, say, the Korean War veteran is a little bit different than the message delivered to an Afghanistan veteran.”
The VA has launched a national outreach campaign, partnering with the Ad Council and a professional advertising firm, Sowers said. The measure of success will be whether more veterans access services, he said.
“We want to make sure that the outreach doesn’t look like the commercials that I used to see when I was in the Army, the public service announcements,” Sowers said.
Sowers, who earned his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics, deployed to Iraq twice as a Green Beret with the U.S. Army. He previously served as senior advisor to the nonprofit Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
James Laflin, commander for Maine AMVETS, said the VA has improved its outreach to veterans, but many still resist tapping into benefits.
“A lot of the Vietnam vets and older vets are what I would call either too stubborn or too proud to even ask,” said Laflin, who attended the morning roundtable. “They don’t want anything to do with it. When they reach the point where they need something, they start looking around to see what they’re eligible for. In a lot of cases, it’s too late.”
In November, a new federal law took effect requiring that all departing service members participate in a series of benefit sessions, which previously were often optional.
Veterans are eligible for a wide array of benefits, including medical care, lifetime payments for disabilities suffered during military service, life insurance, and home loan programs.
In addition to its outreach efforts, the VA is also working to process claims more quickly. Last year, the time it took the VA to process disability claims jumped by nearly 40 percent to 262 days, up from 188 days in fiscal year 2011.
Togus has served as a model for its efficient processing of claims, as well as its relationship with the wider community, Sowers said.
Laflin credited coordination in Maine among Togus, veterans groups, the Maine Army National Guard, and Gov. Paul LePage’s office.
I thought Mikey mishunion was all over this.
you sound like an asshat
I second your comment.
No kidding!
“A lot of the Vietnam vets and older vets are what I would call either too stubborn or too proud to even ask,” said Laflin, who attended the morning roundtable. “They don’t want anything to do with it. When they reach the point where they need something, they start looking around to see what they’re eligible for. In a lot of cases, it’s too late.”
Nice -Let’s insult the same veterans that you are supposedly trying to support. While you are at it, why not blame them for the year-long waits at VA hospitals and clinics?
He could have said ‘too dumb’, but he didn’t. At least give him some credit for censoring himself.
Togus, huh? Of course that’s just SO convenient for veterans in Aroostook county. I can see them all driving downstate regularly just to learn what benefits they might be eligible for…
VA and Togus should have facebook pages if they don’t now.
You can go to Caribou to check benefits or the parking lot of Houlton Regional on Wednesdays. Worked for me.
Most of the same benefits are available from your job and local community. Usually with less travel time and hassel,
The veterans are entitled to the benefits. Therefore, the benefits are “an entitlement.” Watch out, vets–by Republican logic, your benefits should be taken away immediately, or at least seriously slashed. And wait until you find out what they’re planning for your Social Security and Medicare.
earned benefits is a more appropriate term than entitlements.
Boo on you… find something positive instead of making up bad stuff.
No, these benefits were EARNED. Veterans who went into the service didn’t go in with the idea that they were going to try to get injured just to get disability. Some may have gone in the service to make it a career and like most jobs there are EARNED benfits. About the only 2 things that aren’t “entitlements” are soc sec because YOU PAY for it and Veterans Benefits because they did something for them. As for taking these benefits away…you must be reading the Daily Kos a little too much.
“A veteran – whether active duty, retired, national guard, or reserve –
is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made
payable to The ‘United States of America’, for an amount of ‘up to and
including my life.'” (Author unknown)
Now I surely don’t know of any other “entitlement” that the above statement can be applied to.
You seem to have missed my point. I agree that veterans deserve–are entitled to–their benefits. My own husband is a Vietnam vet.
I am showing up the way Republican leaders have cruelly twisted the term “entitlements” so that anything your’re entitled to becomes something you’re NOT supposed to get.
Old people (I am one) don’t need to have risked our lives to “earn” or be entitled to Social Security or Medicare. Republican leaders are demanding that these be slashed. We’re entitled to the benefits, thus (by their logic) we’re not entitled to them.
I don’t think anyone is twisting “entitlements”. And you are “entitled” to soc sec and medicare because you PAID into it. If you didn’t have the required credits you would get nada unless you were covered under your spouse. What is being missed is the simple fact that soc sec and medicare no longer have money and when there are much fewer paying into the system, that the govt steals from, then who will get what? Do you think this is for free and the govt has boatloads of funds to just pay us all? There is a big difference in slashing as you put it rather than doing something to make sure it is still solvent. And the OLD folk, of whom you claim to be one aren’t going to lose a thing. And if you really think the younger folks will still have the same kind of monies that people receive now, then you must think the rich will support all of this. How did you like your medicare INCREASE? 1.7% cola was great too. Most people had their cola just about cover the medicare increase. Maybe we should “slash” the real entitlements then? Like welfare? Medicaid? SCHIP? Benefits to illegals? Free tuition? The scare tactics do work though, many grannies really think they will be losing their soc sec the way the progressive minded wage their war on everything.
The Republicans are pushing hard, and it looks like President Obama might agree to make cuts in Social Security. They’ve have been using debt and deficit blackmail as a bargaining strategy since Reagan. He raised the debt ceiling 17 times, forcing the US to borrow to cover Federal budget debts for the 1st time in history.
David Stockman, who created Reagan’s famous trickle-down budgets wrote: “The Reagan deficits were intentional, designed to cut revenue as a way of pressuring Congress to cut programs Republicans wanted to destroy….The plan… was to have a strategic deficit that would give you an argument for cutting back the programs that weren’t desired….” [http://www.winningprogressive.org/the-republicans-debt-and-deficit-blackmail]
They’re not just after Medicaid, welfare, and other programs you may imagine you’ll never need. They’re squeezing Medicare and Social Security as well. This didn’t just sort of happen. They created the deficit for this purpose. And they’re determined to keep military spending up and billionaires’ taxes down.
Does the VA and Togus have a facebook page? Free to start, and many Vets use computers at home and at the library.
I like your idea, Ganary. I don’t use Facebook personally, but I am dependent upon the VA for all of my care as a 62 year old Vietnam Vet with no family left alive, living alone in Maine.
The VA has gotten so much better since when I moved up here in 2003. I had to tell local veterans in my hamlet about PTSD, as they had never heard of it.
Up here, in small locales, people are not willing to share information with other people in town, for fear of rumors and John Wayne attitudes among many small town Mainers that were prevalent back in 2003.
I am reading a new book called THIRTY DAYS WITH MY FATHER by Dr.
Christal Presley, whose Dad was a combat vet in Vietnam. Even though her Dad is my age and has had his benefits for years, he was concerned that in talking with his daughter about the problems she had with his PTSD from Vietnam for use in a book and her personal well being/therapy, and by making their life public, the people of his small town in West Virginia might not invite him to play his Christian music on his guitar, one of the great pleasures of his life. So this phenomena that I observed up here happens all over the country to war vets of my generation, particularly in rural areas.
One thing that I love is the MyHealtheVet website at the VA, where I can send e mail to my counselor or primary care physician, or any other VA providerers, about medication, appointments, or any other issue.
IT’S GREAT. ANY VETERAN REGISTERED WITH THE VA CAN USE THIS WEB SITE (which can be found online at the VA main website for Togus VAMC) TO ASK QUESTIONS OR RESEARCH ANY TOPIC OF VA CARE. Also, family members of veterans can use this site, along with active duty servicemen, and family members. Check it out at the Togus VAMC home page!
Also, the recent addition of 3,000 extra mental health staff at the VA has freed up a counselor for me to talk to, which has made my grisly life more livable, thank you Higher Power (lord, God, or whatever word you use).
Change happens slowly, and one day at a time. I am going to send some more copies of THIRTY DAYS WITH MY FATHER to my counselor, so she
can share them with some other veterans who might find this book helpful.
Veterans helping veterans, in very small ways, is the way we survived the war, and that’s what is nice about being a veteran. Roger Stavitz in Danforth,
Maine
I can see why many Vets do not use the VA Hospitals for treatment. I have sever pain of osteoarthritis, bi lateral hip replacements, back pain at times rated at 8 and create enough pain that I am in tears. I have asked for pain management classes, an increase from 3 Vicodin a day to 4 so that i can have a normal life. Oh did not mention that my right hip is lose in the socket and moves, have been to Detroit VA Orthopedics and they won’t touch it for what they say could make it worse off. DA! Why ask for help most of the time their regulation or evaluation assessments disqualify you for the proper treatment. Oh and a vet without a home program what a farce I have asked for help in that area and if I do not get my pain under control I cannot inter there programs. I am a Vietnam Veteran so to be homeless and on the streets living, personally i am at the point were death is better then this!!!!
Dear Blake:
I met a man in my town some years ago, who still lives here, as I ran in to him while we went to vote recently.
Back then, told me about his severe back pain, which started during a mortar attack at his base in Vietnam. He, too, is more than 100% disabled. And he was sitting in his car as he talked to me at the Transfer Point.
He told me about the trouble he had getting the painkillers he felt were necessary for him to live a life without pain, and when I saw him limping down the steps of the town hall in November of 2012, with his cane supporting him, as he was in obvious pain, it is obvious to me that YOU ARE NOT ALONE with these problems.
I wish you the very best, and hope that some relief comes to you soon, so you do not feel that, “death is better than this!” I wish you the very best, and hope some remedy works for you very soon. God Bless. Rog.
God Bless, THANKS for your service. Keep the Faith!!!
Obama WANTS to roll back Social Security, Medicare, and VETERANS MEDICAL CARE by turning it into a voucher system run by insurance companies. You may not like the current system. Don’t worry. It is about to get a LOT worse. This item about VA health care delivery is in Obama’s deficit cutting proposal, as are cutting Social Security and Medicare. Expect it to happen.
I’m 100% disabled and happy that I have private health insurance. VA health care is awful. Moving to voucher system might be a good thing.
Under vouchers you will have less money than the current system for your health care needs. And private insurers will be taking their cut for administration and profit. Maybe these will be good things. How, is inconceivable to me.
The deficit scaremongering is designed to reduce all benefits citizens receive from government, including earned ones. Changes in VA health care is not to benefit vets. It is designed to benefit private sector blood sucking profiteers.
Do you have a source for that assertion?
The voucher system was touted by Governor Romney during the campaign. It was soundly rejected by veteran organizations. President Obama has stood by veterans.
More about Romney’s vouchers and privatization at http://www.barackobama.com/press/release/fact-check-romney-would-slash-veterans-benefits/
Gee, and here I thought Mike Michaud was all over the idea of protecting Maine veterans. You mean, he dropped the ball on this?
When I got out of the Army in 2002, I was driving from Holden to Augusta for a year before someone asked why I was not using the VA Med Clinic in Bangor, I did not know it was there, and was not told it was there and I went to the VA office to give them a copy of my 214 and let them know I was In Maine, maybe a pamphlet letting Vets know what is in their area for Veterans, Like the Vets place on Hallow street in Bangor, what Bank(s) do VA Loans not all do., Things have gotten better but most stuff I find out from other Vets.
All of this info is on the Maine Togus VAMC website. Admittedly, a lot of vets still have to learn from other vets.
I know a vet in town who got a medical discharge, but no service connection. He was in great pain, so I suggested he sign up for VA health care, as he had none at all, and was working for low pay.
Surprisingly, I met him when I went in for counseling at Bangor VA. As we were chatting, I mentioned that he ought to, “check out,” which means you go to the clerk and they set up your next appointment and arrange for travel pay. I didn’t think he was elibible for travel pay.
But, surprisingly enough, he was eligible for travel pay for half the distance, as he was a low income veteran. So even though he had no service connection (which he may have some day if he is willing to go through the appeals process for his injury), he did get travel pay for half the distance, and my tip proved correct. Plus, this guy could really use the gas money, as he is broke.
Bangor VA is 95 miles from where we live and Lincoln VA (a smaller clinic) is 45 miles away. I would imagine that they are treating him at Lincoln, and he was in Bangor for other services.
I like the VA because I enjoy the friendly way veterans treat other veterans. I guess it reminds me of my 32 months in service during two trips to Nam, and I did enjoy the comraderie of the military, BUT JUST DIDN’T LIKE THE WAR….LOL
So I enjoy going to the VA for medical help, and that’s like Richard Nixon saying he’d switched parties and was joining the Democrats….LOL I never imagined I’d enjoy going to the VA.
Plus, for all of his other medical needs, there is a small co-pay, which is often waived for low income veterans. Many veterans with good civilian health care still come to the VA, because all prescriptions have a co-pay of $9 a month if you have NO service connection, and are free if you are service connected.
My facts may be hazy or outdated, so please check on your own situation by calling a service organization at Togus (American Legion Office) or any division of the VA.
I guess the system is not perfect, and civilian health care is certainly much more convenient if you can afford it. But in state where few jobs offer medical insurance, many people have no medical care. And of course, there are always those veterans who are very healthy and well, and financially prosperous, with great Blue Cross plans, who do not want to be inconvienced by the VA system.
However, overall, the VA fills a need in a country where affordable health care is not for all. And it does a pretty good job, in my opinion, but is not perfect.
I give the VA an A minus rating, only because it is not perfect. I’m sure the insurance executive, Mr. Lanza, who was in the news recently, quoted as making over $450,000 a year, has an A plus medical plan. But we are all not so lucky or smart as those making over $200,000 a year.
Is is just me or does this guy look like Tom Cruise??!!
As a partially disabled Vietnam era vet, I am entitled to get all my care from them.Fortunately, I have a decent job and health benefits so I don’t have to put up with the abuse and neglect of the VA medical centers. Appointments canceled at their whim, usually at the last minute. They should take EVERY SINGLE VA HOSPITAL & MED CENTER and close them. Give the vets who have earned benefits a Federal Blue Cross or a Tri-Care card with no deductible and let them go to the hospitals and health centers that are local to them. Why should a vet from Caribou have to drag to Augusta to be treated badly? Why do guys needing ortho surgery have to go to Boston? All those folks who WORK at the med centers could then come OFF the federal payroll and work private sector. VA’s only interest is protecting their little bureaucratic kingdom. As for the AMVETS and VFW – they just support VA as a part of the “club”. Back in the 70s they didn’t to TALK to any of us who hadn’t been in WWII. If you served from ’65-’75, you were treated as if your service didn’t matter and you should be ASHAMED of it. So the VA, AMVETS and VFW can stop pretending they have the veterans’ best interests at heart. They want to continue kingdom building, using the veterans as bricks & mortar.