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Should US armed services veterans be entitled to free/discounted medical services for life?

Results so far:

Yes		89%	90 votes	Total: 101 votes
No		11%	11 votes	Total: 101 votes

Yes

1 of 12

As the wife of an injured veteran there's no question where I stand on this issue. To begin with everyone assumes that because my husband is in the military , life is just a bowl of cherries. I hear things like "You're so lucky he makes good money". That is laughable. My husband is only a specialist, an e4, junior enlisted. After taxes, child support, and bills we are lucky to see eight hundred dollars a month, before groceries. Yet we still get treated like we're loaded with money and just don't want the world to know. I've heard " well you get free housing and don't pay taxes when you shop on post". Our housing isn't free, my husband gets an allowance that our housing office takes, leaving us a base pay and bas ( basic allowance for sustenance). To make a long story short, we struggle very much just to put food on the table.

Shortly after my husband deployed he was involved in an arrest on a group of individuals caught stealing equipment. For his actions he was given the Army Achievment Medal, and four herniated discs in his back. That happened in March, he continued to do his job for another seven months before he was finally put on bedrest and sent home. By the time he got home he could barely walk, and had been on pain killers for three months. He has been home now for five months and he is still awaiting surgery. He is still on pain killers, and still on doctor's orders for bedrest. We are hoping his surgery will be succesful, but if it is not he'll never be able to work again, and he will be given a medical discharge.

My husband was in his thirties when he joined the Army. We had already been married for eight years and had routes in our community. We had children in school, and jobs on the local fire department. We had friends, and family, and a life. When my husband decided to join it was a decision we both made. We gave up our house, uprooted our children, and moved two thousand miles away from all our friends and family. My husband left a job he loved, as did I. We took a major pay cut, and ended up nine thousand dollars in debt. All of this so my husband could serve his country. So there is no question in my mind that veterans deserve health care. Veterans deserve a lot more than that. This country has grown so desensitized to war and sacrifice that it has forgotten what our soldiers give up. I hear people saying how lucky the military is. I really don't consider us lucky. We make half the money we made in the civilian jobs we had. I haven't seen my family in two years. And my husband is in severe pain every single day. We are not lucky. This is not an easy life. It's time this country starts taking care of the men and women who give their lives for it. So asking for free health care for men and women who served and were wounded defending this country should not even be a question. It should be a right.

Learn more about this author, Michelle Paszkowski.
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