Note:
Gives a good perspective on the VA Backlog. Also the web, online veteran
advocates, and people like me also contributed to the backlog….more veterans are
aware of service connected illnesses, and the claims process, and with lawyers
helping vets, more cases are being appealed and won, rather than just being
dropped out of the vets frustrations and giving up. Despite the backlog, more
claims have been approved in past few years, than in previous 10 years. (s)
Colonel Dan Cedusky USA Ret
See Graphs
at
Changing
policy has made it easier to receive benefits. But with expanded eligibility and
an aging vets population, the VA's backlog grows.
By Alan
Zarembo, Los Angeles Times
May 11,
2013,
6:10
p.m.
Vietnam
veteran John Otte did his best to forget the war.
He got
married, raised two sons and made a career working at credit
unions.
But as
Otte neared retirement, memories of combat flooded back. Starting in 2005, he
filed a series of claims with Veterans Affairs for disability compensation,
contending that many of his health problems stemmed from the
war.
The VA agreed, and now the
65-year-old with two Purple Hearts receives $1,900 a month for post-traumatic stress
disorder and diabetes — and for
having shrapnel scars on his arms. His payments will rise to about $3,000 if the
VA approves a petition to declare him completely disabled and
unemployable.
"I've been
sitting here waiting," he said.
Otte is
among hundreds of thousands of veterans from the Vietnam era filing for damages
four decades after the war. They account for the largest share of the 865,000
veterans stuck in a growing and widely denounced backlog of compensation claims
— some 37%. The post 9-11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq account for 20%.
The remainder are from the 1991 Gulf War, Korea, World War II and times of
peace.
Basic
demographics explain some of the filing frenzy. Vietnam veterans are becoming
senior citizens and more prone to health problems. Any condition they can link
to their military service could qualify for monthly payments — and for many
illnesses, it is easier for Vietnam veterans than other former troops to
establish those links. Heart disease, Type 2
diabetes and several other afflictions common in older Americans are presumed to
be service-related for Vietnam veterans because the government has determined
that anyone who served on the ground there was likely to have been exposed to
the herbicide Agent Orange, which is
known to increase the risk of those conditions.
At the
same time, changing attitudes toward mental health care mean that veterans
suffering from PTSD and other psychiatric conditions are now more willing to come
forward. The
uncertainties of older age — and possibly the decade-long spectacle of the
current wars — may in fact be triggering relapses of PTSD among some
veterans.
Linda
Bilmes, a public policy professor at Harvard University,
said the filings are a cautionary lesson. "Wars have a long tail," she said.
"The peak year for disability claims from Vietnam has not been reached
yet."
By
comparison, payments to veterans of World War I, which
ended in 1918, were highest in 1969. Bilmes said the peak for the wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq is likely to occur around 2050.
VA
statistics show that annual compensation to veterans from the Vietnam era more
than doubled between 2003 and 2012, reaching $19.7 billion of the total paid to
veterans that year of $44.4 billion.
Of the
roughly 320,000 Vietnam veterans in the backlog, about 40% are making claims
for the first time. The rest already receive some compensation. Veterans who
are denied can reapply indefinitely to increase their payments as existing
conditions get worse or new ones emerge.
In recent
years, veterans have had an easier time winning disability pay for several
illnesses.
In 1991,
Congress enacted a law guaranteeing compensation to any veteran who served on
the ground in Vietnam and went on to develop certain types of cancer or a skin
condition known as chloracne — diseases linked to Agent Orange
exposure.
As more
scientific evidence has emerged, the VA has added 11 new conditions to the Agent
Orange list, including Type 2 diabetes, prostate cancer and
ischemic heart disease. Diabetes has become one of the most common conditions
among Vietnam veterans receiving compensation. Over the last nine years, the
number of cases rose from 135,000 to nearly 323,000 — more than 10% of the
service members who went to Vietnam.
Many
qualify for multiple ailments. The number being compensated for hearing loss —
often tied to not having used ear protection — rose by more than 236,000 since
2003.
Over the
same period, nearly 184,000 joined the ranks of those being paid for PTSD.
Nearly a
third were added after 2010, when the
VA loosened its requirements so that veterans no longer had to document specific
events such as killings or ambushes that traumatized them. Having lived under
threat qualifies anybody with a current diagnosis.
PTSD did
not become a formal psychiatric diagnosis until 1980, when the Vietnam War was long
over. It was highly stigmatized at the time, but the wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq have made it more acceptable for veterans of all eras to seek treatment and
compensation.
Vietnam
War medic Shad Meshad, head of the National Veterans Foundation, said he urges
veterans to file claims, telling them: "You've suffered for 40
years."
Even for
veterans who led productive lives after the war, the psychological trauma can
lurk in the background, said John Wilson, a psychologist at Cleveland State
University and expert on PTSD and Vietnam
veterans.
"Many
don't sleep well," Wilson said. "If they hear a noise at night, they sit in the
stairwell with a 9 millimeter to see if somebody is
there."
The recent
wars also may be causing relapses. Wilson's research shows that watching news
reports about the U.S. involvement stirred up painful memories for some Vietnam
veterans.
In 1986,
researchers estimated that about 500,000 of the 3.1 million men who served in
Vietnam were suffering from PTSD. Dr. Charles Marmar, a psychiatrist at New York University
helping lead new research into the disorder, said that although some people with
PTSD get worse over time, most improve. Life changes such as retirement or death
of a spouse, however, can unleash old ghosts. "The deeper they get into
retirement, the more they think about the past, and the less they think about
the future," Marmar said.
Rich
Dumancas, deputy director for veterans benefits at the American Legion, said
the bad economy also drove claims as veterans lost jobs. "They needed to make
ends meet, so they started talking to me about their disabilities," said
Dumancas, who spent most of the last decade as a government advocate for
veterans in Duluth, Minn.
Being
approved for disability compensation also increases access to the VA healthcare
system, which generally has lower out-of-pocket costs than
Medicare.
VA
officials say the agency rejects many new claims and that they do not believe
the surge in claims signals abuse of the system. "There have been isolated cases
where fraud has been identified," said Edna MacDonald, head of the VA benefits
office in Nashville, Tenn. "But we have a lot of safeguards in the
system."
Otte, the
65-year-old hoping for a full disability rating, said the war left him a changed
man — angrier, unable to forge close friendships, racked with guilt for
surviving while many other men in his Army unit were killed. But he managed to
live productively, settling in Harbor City.
His wife,
Benedicta, said he never told her much about the war, but it is clearly a source
of distress. When the family went to see the 1986 Vietnam movie "Platoon," he
had to leave the theater.
Sometimes
he wakes her up with cries of "no, no, no" in his sleep, she said. His
nightmares started more than a decade ago and grew more frequent over time, he
said. In the most common dream, he is under enemy fire but can't shoot back. His
M-16 rifle is jammed.
A friend
advised him to apply for disability compensation and seek care at the VA in Long
Beach, where he now attends a group therapy session once a week and undergoes
treatment for pain, eye problems and other complications of
diabetes.
His latest
disability filing has been pending since 2010.
"I should
be at the front of the line," he said. "I was a guy walking around in the jungle
for a year."
This is
one in a series of occasional articles about the struggles of military
veterans.
__._,_.___
"Keep on, Keepin' on" "Colonel Dan"
Dan Cedusky, Champaign IL, Col, USA, Ret,
Life member: Am Legion, DAV, AMVETS, MOAA, NGAUS, IL SAL, NGAIL,
NAUS, IL State Director USDR
See my web site at:
http://www.angelfire.com/il2/VeteranIssues
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