Healthcare expert and podcaster Michael McLafferty questions two veterans and their civilian supporter as to their ambitious campaign to both reduce the rate of veteran suicide and to abolish – literally – the unpaid and unpayable medical debt owed by vets through the VA system.

To put the suicide problem into perspective, out of our population of over 330 million, there are 1.4 million Americans in the military and19 million Americans are veterans. But, they contribute to 20 percent of all suicides. At the horrific rate of 44 per day. 44 PER DAY!

Concerning the second evil - veteran/military bad debt - an estimated $6 billion is held by the VA hospital system. Despite highly publicized recent VA and governmental declarations to forgive or ameliorate this burden, little has been accomplished. Hardly the best way to say “Thank you for your service.”

The solutions to these seemingly intractable problems, as claimed by Michael’s guests Marine veteran Rick Johnson of VOI Health, Navy veteran Jerry Ashton of Let’s Rethink This and civilian and ardent veteran advocate Cary Harrison an award-winning Public Radio host, are innovative and potentially game-changing in their impact.

Their chosen platform is the recently launched Veteran Mission Possible (VMP) which describes itself as a collaborative veteran advocacy campaign – “A Veteran and Civilian Effort to Right The Wrongs experienced by the nation’s finest.”

This is where they intend to get the attention of the movers and shakers in the VA and attract the funding and partners needed to crystalize and ignite their work. Take a listen and visit VMP to determine if their message resonates and deserves your support.

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