Why some veterans are falling in the cracks
by K. Morgan Barker
Our young men and women who have served our country in Iraq and Afghanistan trust that they will be taken care of when they return. That isn’t always the case.
Take the case of Patrick Feges, a Purple Heart veteran, who went without his benefits for 19 months. And he is only one of about 300,000 veterans who are backlogged and waiting to receive their benefits.
Most VA disability claims filed by veterans are resolved in less than a year, but lost paperwork, administrative errors and appeals of rejected claims can delay thousands of disability claims for years on end. Many of these veterans are without any recourse and must simply wait and hope that it ends, eventually, in their favor.
2.6 million Veterans were receiving disability in 2005 and most of them are Vietnam veterans. In other words, we haven’t even been hit yet by the influx of veterans who will be seeking benefits and disability which they are entitled to…
About 567,000 of the 1.5 million American troops who have served so far have been discharged. These numbers are sobering. If we continue on this scale we’ll have 4 million veterans applying for disability when they retire.
The war is costing us $7 billion dollars a MONTH and has strapped resources that normally would be spent elsewhere.
37% of active duty veterans file for disability compensation compared to 20% of those who served with the National Guard or Reserve Units. Of those claims filed by reservists and the Guard, 18% are denied compared with 8% of those filed by active duty troops. Veterans advocates, such as myself, believe one reason may be that efforts to explain VA procedures are better for troops leaving active duty than for the Guard and reservists.
Our Veterans are falling through the cracks and they are not confident that they will be taken care of. A recent poll here on VT showed that 88% don’t believe that veterans’ benefits, as they are now, meet their needs.
To their credit, the VA is attempting to ensure that disabled veterans receive State Benefits they are entitled to by changing a law protecting veterans’ privacy. If Congress agrees to pass this law then veterans will be informed of their state benefits. Many veterans don’t even know they have these benefits because of a federal medical privacy law called the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act which prevents the sharing of veterans’ information without their consent. This would also take some of the financial burden off the VA though it will be admittedly more expensive for the states.
This is just one step of many that need to be taken to ensure that our veterans–people who have been willing to put their very lives on the line–are well taken care of. Regardless of political party you belong to–and regardless of whether or not the president or anyone else is pro-war or anti-war– one fact remains: Our veterans deserve and have the right to our tangible support as a Nation and fulfilled promises from the VA.
Morgan Barker is the editor of VT. She comes from a long line of war veterans and she is married to a veteran.
ATTENTION READERS
We See The World From All Sides and Want YOU To Be Fully InformedIn fact, intentional disinformation is a disgraceful scourge in media today. So to assuage any possible errant incorrect information posted herein, we strongly encourage you to seek corroboration from other non-VT sources before forming an educated opinion.
About VT - Policies & Disclosures - Comment Policy
