In November of 2023, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) launched a new national advertising campaign to encourage veterans to enroll in the VA Health Care and receive the benefits that they have earned by their military service.
This VA promotional campaign will range across the lines of print, radio, television, digital media, billboards, and social media. It is the next phase of the VA’s aggressive campaign to have veterans participate in the VA’s health care system.
The “What You Earned” advertising campaign will focus on educating veterans and their families about some of the most tangible, cost-saving benefits of using the VA. These benefits include low-cost or no-cost health care, debt-free education, zero-down payments on home loans, no-cost memorial services and benefits.
The new aspect of the promotional campaign is that it will use actual cost comparisons to illustrate veterans’ savings with the VA vs without using VA. The goal is to encourage veterans who are not enrolled in VA health care or receiving disability benefits to apply for the first time.
Last year’s VA’s promotional campaign resulted in record numbers of veterans applying for their benefits. However, many of our veterans are still not participating in obtaining their earned benefits, and this is why the “What You Earned” campaign was initiated.
In Fiscal Year 2023, the VA scheduled more than 116 million healthcare appointments for veterans, which surpassed the previous all-time record by more than three (3) million appointments.
The VA delivered $163 billion in earned benefits, including $150 billion in compensation and pension benefits to 1,535,685 veterans and survivors, all of which are all-time records.
The VA provided services and assistance to a record 74,270 veteran family caregivers – supporting them while they take care of the veterans.
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During the previous largest outreach campaign in VA history, veterans submitted 2,433,729 disability claims and thirty-nine (39%) percent more than the previous year. Veterans also submitted 2,299,815 Intents-to-File for disability claims applications and sixty-two (62%) percent more than the previous Fiscal Year.
The Veteran Crisis Line received 1,002,971 calls, texts, and chats, surpassing their all-time high record by fifteen (15%) percent. The VA also provided no-cost emergency health care to 35,542 veterans in acute suicidal crises through a new program launched in January of 2023.
The new “What You Earned” campaign is structured to increase awareness of the various programs offered by the VA and to supplement the previous outreach campaign.
“All to often, veterans don’t know the full scope of the health care and benefits they have earned through their service to our nation,” commented VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “The goal of this campaign is to change that.”
“We want to show veterans and their families – in the most tangible terms possible – how the VA can help them afford to stay healthy, go to school, get a job, buy a home, and more,” concluded VA Secretary McDonough.
“Our goal is to bring as many veterans as possible to the VA, because study after study shows that veterans that use the VA do better,” said Deputy Secretary Tanya Bradsher.
“But we need to give veterans a clear and compelling reason to sign up, and that’s what this campaign is all about,” continued Deputy Secretary Bradsher. “Showing veterans that they can save thousands of dollars by using their earned VA health care, home loans, GI Bill benefits, memorial services and more.”
In addition to focusing on veterans who are newly eligible for VA care and benefits under the PACT Act, the new campaign is also designed to reach historically underserved veterans.
These historically underserved veterans include Women Veterans, African American Veterans, Hispanic Veterans, younger veterans, and those veterans residing in rural areas. The campaign will feature ads in both English and Spanish.
The “What You Earned” campaign will include Media Coverage; Events; Advertising; Direct Veteran Outreach; Collaborations with veteran service organizations, major corporations, and influencers; and Print, Digital and Video Resources.
For a Media Coverage example, during fiscal year 2023, the VA generated over 395,000 news articles and over 137,000 broadcast pieces. These were accomplished with the goal of informing veterans about the care and benefits they’ve earned.
In terms of an example for the Direct Veteran Outreach during the previous fiscal year, the VA has sent hundreds of millions of PACT Act-related emails and letters to veteran encouraging them to apply for their VA benefits.
In September of 2023, the VA executed its first-ever text marketing campaign to encourage eligible veterans to enroll in VA Health Care before the September 30th PACT Act deadline. This effort resulted in a 179% increase in year-to-date healthcare enrollments.
My Opinion: The previous Veterans Outreach campaign for the PACT Act has been highly successful. I can recall receiving at least two (2) direct mailings encouraging me to enroll in the VA Health Care program.
The focus of the “What You Earned” campaign is educating veterans about the many benefits of the VA Programs is highly commendable and, realistically, should have been done years ago.
BioSketch: John Plahovinsak is a 32-year retired Army veteran, who served from 1967 to 1999. He is the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Department of Ohio’s Hospital Chairman and Adjutant of DAV Chapter #63 (Clermont County). He can be contacted at: plahovinsak@msn.com.