On June 19, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected a motion to preserve insurance protection for veterans.
The unanimous consent motion, by Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a disabled veteran who served in Iraq, asked that the Senate health care bill not be allowed to kick veterans off of Medicaid.
Medicaid provides vital mental health benefits; 35 percent of low-income Medicaid beneficiaries, and 13 percent of non-elderly adult beneficiaries have a chronic mental illness.
Do some veterans have a mental illness as a result of their service? Well, they would lose access to treatment through the Republican plan.
Then there are our senior veterans. Medicaid offers protection against high out-of-pocket costs for those on Medicare, paying Medicare premiums for seniors living near the poverty line.
Medicaid provides long-term care services and support, which includes nursing facilities, home health aides, personal care and family caregiving.
Long-term care is one of Medicaid’s most critical, and invaluable, protections for our nation’s seniors. In addition to covering long-term care, Medicaid provides critical coverage for seniors who rely on nursing home care.
This is the coverage Mitch McConnell refused to protect.
Veterans who require nursing home care, long-term care, prescriptions, eyeglasses or hearing aides that Medicare doesn’t cover, and veterans who require mental health treatment, will not be promised that coverage.
Their service to our country? Apparently, it doesn’t matter to Mr. McConnell.
If you value the service our veterans have provided, call our senators and tell them to how you feel.
Tamara Hamilton
Mancos