Americans should treat Veterans Day as more than a holiday of parades and posts. It is a moment to renew the promise we made to the men and women who raised their right hand and for the country to ask what it owes them in return.
That starts with healthcare. Veterans deserve timely access to VA healthcare, fast and accurate decisions on disability claims, and mental health resources that actually reach the people who need them. The stakes are not abstract. The Department of Veterans Affairs’s latest annual report found 6,488 veteran suicides in 2024, an average of 17.7 every single day. And 62% of those veterans were not receiving VA care in the year they died or the year before. Every leader who claims to honor veterans should be able to explain how they will close that gap and how they will support the military families and caregivers who carry so much of this weight at home.
