Letter to the editor: Heitkamp has the right plan for North Dakota’s veterans

As a Vietnam veteran and as a North Dakotan, I know that Heidi Heitkamp is the right choice for North Dakota.

When you live in Fargo, it’s not too hard for a veteran to get special medical treatment for cancer or other serious conditions. For veterans throughout the rest of North Dakota, though, it’s much more difficult. Heitkamp will fight to change that.

Veterans in North Dakota who have cancer or other advanced diseases often must drive for hours and hours to the VA Hospital in Fargo to get treated. That drive is hard for anyone. For someone with cancer, the drive is awful — especially when they could receive good care closer to home. Of North Dakota’s 60,000 veterans, 63 percent have to drive more than an hour to the hospital or to get specialized treatment. That’s an unfair burden for veterans who have made sacrifices for our country.

The Heroes Health Card that Heitkamp would support in the Senate is what North Dakota’s veterans need. It would let them get access to quality care, closer to home. Veterans in places like Bismarck would no longer have to drive all the way to Fargo for chemotherapy they could easily get in Bismarck.

Heitkamp has my vote because she cares about veterans and North Dakota. She’ll put North Dakota’s interests first and put politics aside to get things done.

Hughie Weisenberger

Fargo

Tags: opinion, letters