To the editor:<\/p>\n
Most Americans assume our veterans receive full medical care through the VA. But there is one glaring exception almost no one talks about: routine dental care. For the overwhelming majority of veterans, cleanings, fillings, and crowns are not covered. A veteran can get a broken arm treated \u2014 but a broken tooth? That\u2019s their responsibility.<\/p>\n
And the impact doesn\u2019t stop with the veteran.<\/p>\n
When dental care is unaffordable for the service member, it becomes unaffordable for the entire household \u2014 spouses, children, and extended family. Dental neglect spreads through a family the same way financial strain does: quietly, predictably, and with long\u2011term consequences.<\/p>\n
Here is a simple, commonsense solution:<\/p>\n
A separate, standalone dental\u2011care program for veterans and their families \u2014 funded entirely by recovered fraud dollars.<\/p>\n
Not Medicare.<\/p>\n
Not Medicaid.<\/p>\n
Not the VA.<\/p>\n
A clean, independent program with its own funding, its own oversight, and no waiting periods.<\/p>\n
Fraud\u2011recovery funds already exist. They are reclaimed from those who took advantage of the system. Redirecting that money to those who defended the system is not only fair \u2014 it\u2019s poetic.<\/p>\n
Under this proposal, veterans would receive full dental care immediately. After one year of enrollment, their family members would be added automatically. A healthy veteran deserves a healthy household.<\/p>\n
This is not insurance.<\/p>\n
This is not bureaucracy.<\/p>\n
This is basic dental hygiene, delivered without delay, excuses, or middlemen.<\/p>\n
If we can recover billions lost to fraud, we can certainly reinvest a portion of it into the people who served this country \u2014 and the families who stood behind them.<\/p>\n
Please help bring attention to a problem that has gone unaddressed for far too long.<\/p>\n
Richard Matthew Eckstein<\/p>\n
Naples<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: Most Americans assume our veterans receive full medical care through the VA. But there is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-217070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}