Add dental care to VA benefits
To the editor:
Most Americans assume our veterans receive full medical care through the VA. But there is one glaring exception almost no one talks about: routine dental care. For the overwhelming majority of veterans, cleanings, fillings, and crowns are not covered. A veteran can get a broken arm treated — but a broken tooth? That’s their responsibility.
And the impact doesn’t stop with the veteran.
When dental care is unaffordable for the service member, it becomes unaffordable for the entire household — spouses, children, and extended family. Dental neglect spreads through a family the same way financial strain does: quietly, predictably, and with long‑term consequences.
Here is a simple, commonsense solution:
A separate, standalone dental‑care program for veterans and their families — funded entirely by recovered fraud dollars.
Not Medicare.
Not Medicaid.
Not the VA.
A clean, independent program with its own funding, its own oversight, and no waiting periods.
Fraud‑recovery funds already exist. They are reclaimed from those who took advantage of the system. Redirecting that money to those who defended the system is not only fair — it’s poetic.
Under this proposal, veterans would receive full dental care immediately. After one year of enrollment, their family members would be added automatically. A healthy veteran deserves a healthy household.
This is not insurance.
This is not bureaucracy.
This is basic dental hygiene, delivered without delay, excuses, or middlemen.
If we can recover billions lost to fraud, we can certainly reinvest a portion of it into the people who served this country — and the families who stood behind them.
Please help bring attention to a problem that has gone unaddressed for far too long.
Richard Matthew Eckstein
Naples