Jan 28 2010
Caregivers of severely injured veterans and their families face emotional and financial pressures and difficulty accessing military medical care.
USA Today reports on the "thousands of unpaid caregivers — parents, spouses, siblings and war buddies — helping veterans injured in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars get through each day. [Barbara Cohoon, deputy director of government relations for the non-profit National Military Family Association] says the caregivers are a vulnerable group, often under-recognized, and in need of help to navigate the military's medical system. Cohoon says not all caregivers receive military benefits, even though many have quit jobs, moved out of their homes and drained their savings to care for their loved ones." Two bills are currently being debated in Congress to help caregivers of veterans to receive "financial support, including health insurance" (Marcus, 1/26).
 This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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