Despite the natural wealth of the state of Alaska, many of its National Guard troops face obstacles upon returning home, even the health care they are entitled to is often out of reach. These problems are the focus of an article in today's Anchorage Daily News.
This analysis is in a report by Veterans for America.
But that's just one of several problems now facing Alaskans who were part of the U.S.-wide call to send Army National Guard troops into battle, according to the year-long study.
Job prospects for troops returning to villages are sometimes grim. And screening for mental health problems is still lacking for the 575 soldiers in the 3rd Battalion, 297th Regiment, who spent a year in northern Kuwait and southern Iraq from 2006 to 2007.
The National Guard soldiers we are talking about are the same soldiers that Sarah Palin cared enough about to get a passport and visit them...the 3rd Battalion, 297 Regiment. She wants you to know she cared about these troops. This experience is a cornerstone in her foreign policy portfolio. I'll leave her foreign policy experience alone. Let's look at the domestic side of it.
We are looking at the intersections of two big issues in this election: health care and the war(s). I believe that Barack Obama was morally right and politically on target in the second debate when he stated that health care was a right in this rich country of ours. Health care for our veterans is something that EVEN John McCain would agree is not the individuals responsibility, but rather something we owe them for fighting for our country. Yet in Alaska they are being left behind.
When Sarah Palin ran for governor, she did not make health care an issue; however, she did recognize the importance of it. She organized a health care policy council and then largely ignored their findings. These findings included recommendations for lower health care costs and making health care widely available. It also recommended expanding coverage for children.
Palin, however, ignored the council's recommendation to extend state health insurance to more children and pregnant women in poor and middle class families. She spurned that idea even though the federal government pays more than half the cost. In Alaska, only children in families earning 175 percent of the federal poverty level, or less, are eligible. For a family of three, that's a maximum of $38,500. Most states offer such insurance to families with earnings at 200 percent, or double the federal poverty level -- $44,000 for the family of three.
If Palin had supported the move, legislators pushing to cover more Alaska children might have succeeded. But Palin was simply absent from that discussion in this year's Legislature.
As a side note, she does see health care as a market place issue that can benefit friends.
During her campaign for governor, she argued that Alaska should get rid of its certificate of need program, a requirement that the state approve certain new health facilities. Getting rid of it, she argued, would promote competition and drive down health care costs. Her stand on the issue echoed the position taken by one of her campaign volunteers, lobbyist Paul Fuhs. He represented a company that would benefit from eliminating the certificate of need program.
The Legislature spurned Gov. Palin's call. Her efforts to get rid of the certificate of need probably detracted from other, more helpful health care initiatives.
As we gratefully acknowledge the heroism of our armed forces, we also have to realize that combat takes an ungodly toll on people. We need to allocate our national treasure to care for the defenders of our freedom. they deserve the best that this nation has and then some. They do not deserve to come home and be tossed aside to deal with their problems on their own. The preliminary conclusions of the Veterans for American study recommends:
recommends that Gov. Sarah Palin launch a comprehensive study of whether the Alaska National Guard troops' post-deployment needs are being met, and it urges the United States to stop deploying the Alaska National Guard overseas "until this situation is remedied."
Craig Campbell, adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard, you know the one who changed his position on Sarah Palin's leadership and then got a promotion, declined to be interviewed, but his office released a statement that objected to the recommendations of the report, stating that it "does not appear to be comprehensive or scientific." They didn't take the time to point out any inaccuracies they might have found.
In the meantime, Sarah Palin's intiatives regarding care for returning veterans include waiving the fees for hunting and fishing...so, they've got that.