Posted on Feb 5, 2015
The Hire More Heroes Act is misguided. There is no veterans’ unemployment crisis.
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Last week, the House of Representatives unanimously approved the Hire More Heroes Act, which would exempt businesses from counting newly hired military veterans toward the 50-worker threshold at which they must provide health insurance or pay a fine under the Affordable Care Act. Although the bill calls veterans “heroes,” it treats them as victims.
The logic behind the bill is simple: Why not give small businesses seeking to avoid the ACA’s “employer mandate” an incentive to hire veterans, who can get health-care coverage through Tricare and the Department of Veterans Affairs? And like most initiatives aimed at assisting military veterans, the bill is well intentioned. But as a matter of public policy, it is based on a faulty premise, sets a counterproductive goal and, on top of it all, is poorly named.
Americans may be shocked to learn that there is no veterans’ unemployment crisis. The unemployment rate in 2014 for post-9/11 veterans was 7.2 percent, the lowest level in seven years of tracking these veterans.
Source: The Washington Post
The logic behind the bill is simple: Why not give small businesses seeking to avoid the ACA’s “employer mandate” an incentive to hire veterans, who can get health-care coverage through Tricare and the Department of Veterans Affairs? And like most initiatives aimed at assisting military veterans, the bill is well intentioned. But as a matter of public policy, it is based on a faulty premise, sets a counterproductive goal and, on top of it all, is poorly named.
Americans may be shocked to learn that there is no veterans’ unemployment crisis. The unemployment rate in 2014 for post-9/11 veterans was 7.2 percent, the lowest level in seven years of tracking these veterans.
Source: The Washington Post
Posted in these groups: 
Employment
Healthcare
Employment Healthcare
Edited 10 y ago
Posted 10 y ago
Responses: 2
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I'm a free market guy. Veterans should compete in the market like everyone else for jobs. They can negotiate higher wages because of the lack of need to be given insurance or whatever the issue of the day is. When it comes down to it, the military gives skills which may or may not be marketable on the outside. But that decision was a voluntary choice. Let the best qualified get the job. And if someone doesn't want to hire you because you're a vet, do you really want to work there?
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Lip service. What about us veterans that don't have health insurance through the VA or Tri-Care? If there was really a crisis, why not bring back the Civilian Conservation Corps to help our crumbling infrastructure?
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Cpl Michael Strickler
Just by being a veteran are not we all better off even if we do not have insurance though?
I remember cutting into my palm pretty bad with a knife shortly after separation. I was getting ready to pull out some super glue, gauze, and duck tape because I knew I had no insurance. My father drove me to the va and I was cringing at all the saline, gauze, etc they were using just seeing dollar signs falling into the trash bins. However, thanks to the copay (or whatever the official terms are) my er visit only set me back like $60...
I think that on all accounts we are better of than the average joe, especially with regards to support and those willing to help us.
...totally agree with the conservation corps though.
I remember cutting into my palm pretty bad with a knife shortly after separation. I was getting ready to pull out some super glue, gauze, and duck tape because I knew I had no insurance. My father drove me to the va and I was cringing at all the saline, gauze, etc they were using just seeing dollar signs falling into the trash bins. However, thanks to the copay (or whatever the official terms are) my er visit only set me back like $60...
I think that on all accounts we are better of than the average joe, especially with regards to support and those willing to help us.
...totally agree with the conservation corps though.
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Cpl Michael Strickler
Wow, you guys are really making me think that being a Marine really is leaps and bounds above all the rest... I mean we all knew that already, but man...
I am shocked and appalled that it can be so difficult for someone, especially a vet to get help. I guess no where and nothing is ever really the best it can be...
I am shocked and appalled that it can be so difficult for someone, especially a vet to get help. I guess no where and nothing is ever really the best it can be...
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PO2 (Join to see)
I am better off because of my service, but not because of a specific program that gives me something. I used the lessons I learned in the Navy to excel at college and life in general.
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