According to Fox News, there are about 23 million living veterans in the United States, the majority of which served in Vietnam or the Gulf War. Only 5.5 million of those active service men and women get funded by the Department of Defense for health care. That math does not add up.
For those soldiers who do have coverage, they say that their coverage is good, but actually receiving the treatment is hard to get. The benefits that our troops deserve, simply aren't being given to them.
Fox reports, The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that 93% of veterans that have applied for disability have been completed, a 34% increase from last March. This may sound like an improvement but that still leaves 400,835 veterans backlogged. Devon J. Avant, who spent 6 years in the U.S. Navy, experienced backlog when he applied for healthcare to treat his PTSD. During his service, Avant served as a humanitarian aid in Haiti as well as a 101st airborne in Iraq. Avant tells us, “Currently I'm seeking care for PTSD, which is a lot simpler to say than the bevy of illnesses that I was diagnosed with in the service. The paperwork was just as simple as filling out a few forms. Appointments are pretty timely too. The only lengthy thing is filing for disability after you've been out of the service.” 
The problem with this situation is medical personnel check a service member’s medical records to see if they apply for disability. Avant says, “The problem, like with me, is that most service members lie to stay in so as to not jeopardize their careers and when you're getting out, if you were considered ‘fit for full duty,’ you get your record glanced over and [you're] told to keep moving.” So this conflict is brought on partly by the soldiers themselves, but not to a flaw. Our soldiers are willing to suck it up and keep fighting for the good of our nation, but once they are released there is no medical care for them because they said they were perfectly fine. After appropriate reviews Avant was granted the health care and treatment that was needed for his PTSD. PTSD, which soldiers call "shell shock", has affected 2.5 million troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to military records, since those wars have started, 105,000 deployed and non-deployed soldiers have applied for treatment for PTSD. Our Troops are not getting the coverage they deserve for what they have done to protect us. This is wrong in my eyes and I want to see a change. What can we do as citizens to help our troops out? We need to rally and get in touch with our local government officials to get our point across.
