The Veterans Benefits Administration’s Policy Research Paper

How the Veteran Affairs Policy Works

Veteran’s benefits administration is mandated to provide financial and other forms of assistance to veterans and their families. Veteran Affairs (VA) manages the benefits and services that ex-soldiers earn after service. Veterans should apply for the benefits that ensure they acquire financial, healthcare, and educational support from their families. After applying for these, a veteran service agent takes the veteran’s responsibility with their family. This assignment explores how the policy works, the qualifications required for a veteran to be considered for the benefits, government expenditure, and the system’s effectiveness in dealing with veteran needs.

Bass, E. (2019). Educational benefits for veterans: The post-9/11 GI bill.Educational Studies, 47(1), 108-116. Web.

Bass claims the GI bill is the most complex former military personnel assistance program with the most extensive scope in American history and proves this through a mixed analytical method of interpreting qualitative and numerical government data. The author utilizes the GI bill to provide supportive information on how the Department of Veteran Affairs has provided such benefits to veterans since the Second World War. The article indicates that the development of the GI bill streamlined the veteran benefits program. Through the policies, the veterans and some dependents can get financial benefits that cover tuition fees at any public institution or get a fixed amount for foreign or private schools with three-year housing allowances. The article is relevant to my study as it provides helpful information about the veterans’ educational benefits and what some of their dependents get from the department of veteran affairs after service.

Belanger, B., Steele, A., & Philhower, K. (2021). Tailoring higher education options for smaller institutions to meet veterans’ needs: Enhancing inclusion in higher education: Practical solutions by veterans for veterans.Journal of Veterans Studies, 7(1), 138-147. Web.

The central thesis of Belanger et al. is that it is still difficult for veterans to integrate socially and academically into smaller higher educational institutions. They acknowledge veteran challenges like feelings of alienation, access to education, financial needs, enrollment, and learning difficulties. The authors use strength-based programs to show how the government can collaborate with learning institutions to develop courses that make it easy for veterans to reintegrate into higher education. The findings obtained from a five-year study and observation of student veteran reintegration as evidence to support their recommendations. The article is resourceful as it will enable me to develop and recommend strategies that can be used to enhance the effectiveness of educational benefits to veterans.

Bilmes, L. (2021). Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars: The long-term costs of providing disability benefits and medical care, 2001-2050.SSRN Electronic Journal, 1-24. Web.

Bilmes states that federal spending on veteran assistance programs will multiply exponentially by 2050 in both figures and percentages, which is paradoxical as the number of former military staff decreases. It outlines the increasing expenses that the country incurs and is expected to incur until 2050. The author provides an overview of the costs already incurred to care for the needs of the veterans as disability and medical care benefits to show how the government is committed to catering to the support of its ex-soldiers who participated in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The author uses data obtained from government expenditures to provide evidence of the costs incurred to support such benefits. She projects the amount expected to be used to finance veterans’ benefits in disability, healthcare costs, and the amounts incurred to create awareness on how the veterans can access their eligibility to the program. Such information is essential to my study as it provides evidence of government expenditures and acts as a reference for projections on plans for veteran benefits.

Bond Hill, C., Kurzweil, M., Davidson Pisacreta, E., & Schwartz, E. (2019). Enrolling more veterans at high-graduation-rate colleges and universities. Ithaka S+R. Web.

The main argument of the research report by Bond Hill et al. is that ex-military personnel have significant problems getting into higher education facilities with a high graduation rate, even with benefits. To support this claim, Bond Hill and her colleagues provide government numbers, debunk myths about veterans, and offer real-life-example-based measures to improve their enrollment. The report by Bond Hill et al. is included to present contemporary issues related to veteran benefits.

Burtin, O. (2020). The history of veterans’ policy in the United States: A comparative overview.Historical Social Research, 45(2), 239-260. Web.

Burtin argues that the American welfare policy for veterans is globally unique due to its separated nature. Sociologists and historians little understand the reasons it has such a status. The author tries to fix the information gap by applying a broad institutional context, historical method, and comparative analysis. One of the critical inferences of Burtin (2020) is that such a character of veterans’ benefits originates from an ingrained social belief that veterans rightfully earn these. The historical analysis of the ex-military welfare measures in America makes this article relevant to my study topic.

Ijadi‐Maghsoodi, R., Moore, E., Feller, S., Cohenmehr, J., Ryan, G., Kataoka, S., & Gelberg, L. (2020). Beyond housing: Understanding community integration among homeless‐ experienced veteran families in the United States.Health & Social Care in the Community, 30(2), 493-503. Web.

The author’s thesis focuses on understanding the different challenges that experienced veterans who are homeless in American society. The information provided by the study was based on interviews with experienced homeless veterans who lived in permanent houses offered by the providers of homeless housing, which serve as evidence. The authors examined the effectiveness of homeless service providers in solving the challenges that experienced veterans experience when integrating back into society. The findings in the study provide helpful information for my research as they will guide the proposal of policy changes that will enhance the successful integration of veterans into society.

Marshall, V., Stryczek, K., Haverhals, L., Young, J., Au, D., & Ho, P. et al. (2021). The focus they deserve: Improving women veterans’ health care access.Women’s Health Issues, 31(4), 399-407. Web.

The central thesis of the analytical text of Marshall et al. is that Veterans Health Admiration has failed to provide equal health opportunities among male and female ex-soldiers. The authors undertook semi-structured interviews and observation of leadership in each facility to gather supporting evidence on the effectiveness of the health facilities. Data collected by the article’s creators revealed the barriers to care and was used to hypothesize about measures to remove major institutional obstacles. Through the study, I will gain relevant information on the obstacles that influence the provision of equal healthcare benefits among veterans of both genders and how such barriers have been overcome.

Maynard, C., & Nelson, K. (2019). Compensation for veterans with service connected disabilities: Current findings and future implications. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 31(1):57-62.

Maynard and Nelson argue that since the compensation program and the health care are vital systemic entities, ex-militaries with service-caused conditions should be more aware of developments related to veterans’ benefits, as about a third of them do not use these. The creators of the article prove their thesis by analyzing policy documents and presenting federal statistics. The inclusion of this scholarly text is because it explains the primary public mechanisms for providing health benefits to veterans.

Shafritz, J., & Hyde, A. (2017). Classics of public administration (8^th ed.). Cengage learning.

The book’s central idea is to introduce the learners to the principles of public administration of which veteran assistance initiatives and policies are part. The book utilizes different scholarly articles on the topic as evidence to support how public policy works. Through such writings, the learner can understand the policy development process and implementation, which is critical in studying the effectiveness of different public policies. The book will detail how public policies work and how they can be modified to serve a given group of individuals. I will utilize that information to study the veteran benefit policy and how the shortcoming of the policy can be effectively addressed.

Weeks, W. (2018). Medicare and VA care of veterans.Health Affairs, 37(4), 677. Web.

Weeks’ central claim is that local services and opportunities provided by US health institutions to the ex-military must be compared in terms of quality and cost to be easily understood by veterans and accessible to improve public administration workers. The article utilizes national statistics on healthcare expenditure as a basis for comparison. It was identified that the Department of Veteran Affairs purchased higher quality end of life than Medicare. Such evidence shows how the government is keen on ensuring that the quality of healthcare provided to veterans is high compared to the Medicare policy, which provides care for the citizens. This source matters to my project, as I will use the information to show the difference between VA healthcare and Medicare.

References

Bass, E. (2019). Educational benefits for veterans: The post-9/11 GI bill.Educational Studies, 47(1), 108-116. Web.

Belanger, B., Steele, A., & Philhower, K. (2021). Tailoring higher education options for smaller institutions to meet veterans’ needs: Enhancing inclusion in higher education: Practical solutions by veterans for veterans.Journal of Veterans Studies, 7(1), 138-147. Web.

Bilmes, L. (2021). Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars: the Long-term costs of providing disability benefits and medical care, 2001-2050.SSRN Electronic Journal, 1-24. Web.

Bond Hill, C., Kurzweil, M., Davidson Pisacreta, E., & Schwartz, E. (2019). Enrolling more veterans at high-graduation-rate colleges and universities. Ithaka S+R. Web.

Burtin, O. (2020). The history of veterans’ policy in the United States: A comparative overview.Historical Social Research, 45(2), 239-260. Web.

Ijadi‐Maghsoodi, R., Moore, E., Feller, S., Cohenmehr, J., Ryan, G., Kataoka, S., & Gelberg, L. (2020). Beyond housing: Understanding community integration among homeless‐ experienced veteran families in the United States. Health & Social Care in the Community, 30(2), 493-503. Web.

Marshall, V., Stryczek, K., Haverhals, L., Young, J., Au, D., Ho, P. M., Kaboli, P. J., Kirsh, S., & Sayre, G. (2021). The focus they deserve: Improving women veterans’ health care access.Women’s Health Issues, 31(4), 399-407. Web.

Maynard, C., & Nelson, K. (2019). Compensation for veterans with service connected disabilities: Current findings and future implications. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 31(1):57-62.

Shafritz, J., & Hyde, A. (2017). Classics of public administration (8^th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Spiro, A. III, Settersten, R. A., Jr., & Aldwin, C. M. (Eds.). (2018). Long-term outcomes of military service: The health and well-being of aging veterans. American Psychological Association. Web.

Weeks, W. (2018). Medicare and VA care of veterans.Health Affairs, 37(4), 677-677. Web.