Chandler’s annual Military Members and Veterans Benefits Expo aims to educate veterans and place greater emphasis on helping them sign up for medical benefits
by Arnaldo Rodgers
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs scandal this year focused on delayed health care, but there’s another, troubling problem: not enough veterans even know about their health-care benefits.
Saturday, Oct. 25, Chandler’s annual Military Members and Veterans Benefits Expo aims to educate veterans and place greater emphasis on helping them sign up for medical benefits.
The free seminar, which runs from 9 a.m. to noon, at Chandler Center for the Arts, 250 N. Arizona Ave., will have about 30 vendors, according to Ron Shackle, a veterans-benefit counselor with the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services.
“Veterans don’t realize that they might be eligible to enroll in the medical system,” Shackle said.
In 2012 more than half of U.S. veterans reported having little or no understanding of their benefits, according to a survey by the national Veterans Affairs Department.
The state Veterans’ Services Department will have representatives on site to talk to veterans about benefits criteria and help them enroll that day. Other vendors that day will boast representatives from service organizations like Veterans of Foreign Wars and The American Legion.
Last year’s expo drew more than 250 from across the Southeast Valley, Shackle said.
Chandler has co-hosted the expo each year with ADVS since 2006. This is the first year Chandler is also partnering with the Phoenix VA Health Care System and Veterans Benefit Adminsitration to co-host the event, according to Chandler Executive
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Arizona VA never had difficulty getting vets signed up. They were well aware of their rights and benefits promised by statute. Educating them about it would only add to the frustration when the AZ VA hides or loses their records hoping they’ll die so’s to not make a nuisance of themselves.
Throwing away money for an event such as this is just another example of the cruel hoax VA medical benefits have been come. The whole thing needs dismantling, everyone sent home and the patients handed over to medicare and private hospitals for treatment, hopefully that will diagnose and treat them promptly.
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