On health care, it’s limited
Published 4:37 pm Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Now that health care has been reformed (easy now, that’s just a quick blood pressure check…) our veterans’ medical care deserves belated attention.
The Senate recently voted to block the Department of Veterans Affairs from paying new disability claims on three diseases presumed linked to Agent Orange, syndicated columnist Tom Philpott reported.
In March, the VA proposed adding B-cell leukemias, Parkinson’s disease and ischemic heart disease to the list of associated with herbicide exposure.
As many as 86,000 Vietnam veterans with these diseases await approval to receive disability compensation, Philpott reported. For months, VA officials have encouraged veterans with these diseases, or their surviving spouses, to file claims.
Not so fast, said Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., a former Navy secretary and decorated Vietnam War veteran. He’s worried the claims, especially for heart disease, will cost too much. Webb’s amendment limited spending on these claims for 60 days, Philpott reported, to allow Congress time to study the decision and examine more closely the link found between these diseases and herbicide exposure.
Sigh. Yes, give those doctors and scientists in Congress more time to study the issue.
These are the “presumptive” diseases so far associated with Agent Orange and other agents, for which veterans may receive compensation:
Acute and subacute peripheral neuropathy; AL amyloidosis; chloracne (or similar acneform disease); chronic lymphocytic leukemia; diabetes mellitus (Type 2); Hodgkin’s disease; multiple myeloma; non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; porphyria cutanea tarda; prostate cancer; cancers of the lung, larynx, trachea and bronchus; and soft tissue sarcoma (other than osteosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, Kaposi’s sarcoma or mesothelioma).
Yes, after that list, better double check if Agent Orange might be associated with yet another type of cancer, Parkinson’s and ischemic heart disease.
The VA helpfully tells veterans: “The law requires that some of these diseases be at least 10 percent disabling under VA’s rating regulations within a deadline that began to run the day you left Vietnam.”
In other words, if you didn’t get sick soon enough, you’re not covered. And if you don’t get sick enough, you’re not covered. Oh, yes. We support our troops.
There are many responsible ways to save money when it comes to military spending. Cutting back on health care for veterans is not among them. In fact, the best thing we could do is give all veterans health benefits for life. That would seem only fair compensation, and good medicine. All veterans, especially Vietnam veterans, deserve more than lip service and bureaucratic delays. Regardless of the cause of their disease.
Otherwise, we’re the country that denies care to veterans because they can’t prove war caused their illness.
