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Tennessee: Veterans see generational divide in VA care
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| James Cripps | |
James Cripps completed his military service during the Vietnam era, when there wasn’t as much emphasis on taking care of veterans as there is now.
That just was the way it was in the 1970s, the 59-year-old Ashland City, Tenn., resident recalls.
But it’s beginning to seem more and more unfair as Mr. Cripps — who has been denied government compensation for conditions he is sure are related to exposure to the herbicide/defoliant known as Agent Orange — watches veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan get ahead of him in line at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
“No American soldier would ever say anything about a guy coming back with a missing arm or missing leg (getting service first),” said Mr. Cripps, chairman of the Agent Orange Committee for the Tennessee chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America.
“But the VA says it’s going to put Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in primary position, so if an Afghanistan veteran comes back and he’s got a broken finger, then he goes ahead of my claim, even though mine is several years old,” he said. “It’s a frustrating, bureaucratic hairball.”
Mr. Cripps is working with veterans statewide, including those in the Chattanooga area, to promote a new Congressional measure that could improve the situation. HR 6562, introduced in July by U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., proposes to expand eligibility for Agent Orange-related benefits.
Though other legislators have introduced measures this year addressing VA benefits, the legislation is the first to address what Mr. Cripps believes is one of the agency’s most unfair provisions: the VA’s “boots on the ground” policy for Agent Orange exposure compensation.
The policy requires that a veteran must have set foot on Vietnam soil in order to be compensated, excluding those who served in the conflict by air or by sea, as well as those who — like Mr. Cripps — served during the conflict either in the United States or areas in Southeast Asian countries such as Laos and Cambodia. A recent U.S. Court of Appeals decision upheld the policy, prompting the action in Congress.
Mr. Cripps, who is mired in what has become a three-year appeals process, says he can prove he was exposed to the herbicide while stationed at Ft. Gordon, Ga., between 1967 and 1970. Agent Orange contains dioxins, which have been linked to increased risk for cancer and genetic defects.
During a press conference in July, Rep. Filner indicated that he intended to push the bill through the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee this month. However, no action had been taken as of Wednesday, records showed.
Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., said he is aware of inequities that should be addressed but that appeals from veterans wanting the bill to be even more expansive make it very unlikely the measure will pass this session as drafted.
And even if it does, Rep. Wamp pointed out, work on next year’s Veterans Affairs funding bill already has been completed in the House, so it wouldn’t get funding until the following year.
But bipartisan support — including the bill’s nine Republican and 14 Democratic co-sponsors — means progress could be made next session if the bill makes it to the House Appropriations Committee, he added.
“As the lead Republican on the (Appropriations Committee) that funds these types of programs, I frankly expect to sign onto it,” Rep. Wamp said.
A Senate version of the bill does not yet exist. But Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., is more than willing to address the issue as well, according to his spokeswoman, Laura Lefler.
“We’ll continue working to ensure all veterans receive appropriate compensation and benefits for service-related illnesses and injuries,” Ms. Lefler said.
varied perspectives
Tony DiMaiolo of Chattanooga, 25, returned from Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2006. He agrees that, as a younger veteran, he enjoys better care than others.
“From my perspective, it does seem like they are taking care of all the current veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan faster than prior service members,” said Mr. DiMaiolo, who receives disability payments as well as treatments for a back injury at the VA Clinic in Chattanooga. “I am sitting there with a bunch of Korea vets, World War II vets, Vietnam vets, and I feel bad when they call me before the other people.”
It would be difficult to determine how many Vietnam-era cases are on hold versus how many Iraq or Afghanistan cases are in the same type of limbo, according to Shelley Mullins, spokeswoman for the VA’s regional office in Nashville. However, Ms. Mullins said, it’s probably true that a larger number of younger veterans are being served first because those are the service members most likely to be dealing with recent, combat-related injuries needing immediate care.
“There are policies as far as the seriously disabled, who do get expedited over other claims,” she said. “It’s based on severity.”
Mr. Cripps isn’t so sure the agency is so judicious. He suffers from chloracne — a painful skin condition he says feels like “being in a briar patch all the time” — as well as diabetes, both conditions the VA associates with Agent Orange exposure. The diabetes led to a heart attack and other complications, he said.
The 390,933 veterans benefits claims pending nationwide are being processed for veterans in a number of different age brackets, Ms. Mullins said. The agency paid out a total of $34.7 billion in compensation and pension benefits during fiscal year 2007, she added, with nearly $786 million of that going to veterans in Tennessee.
Don Samuels, spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Veterans Affairs, said he believes younger veterans may be floating to the top of the benefits pool because they are more aware of exactly what they qualify for and how exactly to apply for it.
“A lot of it is knowledge-based,” Mr. Samuels said.
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Comments
This has NOT been my experience within the VA medical care system. The Chattanooga VA Clinic deserves kudos, not criticism.
I have compensable Vietnam-era service connected disabilities -- hearing loss among others. Since I have other health insurance, I have CHOSEN to use the VA clinic at the minimum solely to stay "on the books" [in case of need] and still not clog up the system for others.
Even so, the care I have received over the years -- including physical therapy, hearing aids, major surgery, and just plain doctor visits -- has been exemplary.
Seen ahead of others? Perhaps, perhaps not. The Chattanooga VA clinic has an appointment system and it works fine. No one is left sitting while some are "called before others"; it does NOT work on an Emergency Room basis where patients are seen according to the seriousness of their injuries.
As to exposure to Agent Orange... Well, my brother was "boots on the ground" and has no exposure service connection despite solid evidence. It is a political thing, even after decades have passed.
As the courts decided, Agent Orange exposure does not occur without physical presence and contact.
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I read over this article on the generational divide in VA services, and I noticed one obvious, glaring, trend missing from the analysis.
Veterans of the Iraq war, Generation X and Millenial soldiers, cannot expect to receive a lifetime of access to VA medical services. Period. The political reality of our situation is that the people, and her legislators, want us into the system and gone in less than five years.
People are simply not willing to pay for another generation of health care for veterans. My father's generation, and his before him, could expect to at least have their cases heard for years afterward.
Now, I see a long line of people in the business of hearing what younger veterans have to say, and then referring them to some website or phone-a-friend operation. They want us to just live with the costs and liabilities to an extent that previous generations did not have to.
Younger veterans, in the long run, will have to assume more costs for their health care on their own. We see this trend all the way into revisions of forms for enlistment. For example, when I first enlisted in 1989, there was not a single question about veteran's disability ratings on the forms. Those questions are there now. Why?
I submit it is because this is one of many subtle ways in which our people are failing to face basic facts about warfare. I have nothing against other veterans of other wars. They have my full support. But, the reality is, there are a lot of people out there who are simply not willing to pay this nation's bills for the costs we are honestly incurring.
I noticed a discussion of these trends to be noticeably absent from the article. Failure to address these kinds less-than-honest dealings with our new generations of veterans can only serve to generate long-term problems for us all.
Will an Iraq War veteran have his case heard thirty years after his conflict? I think it's more likely that he will be given a website address instead of actual, constructive help with his problem.
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