Nearly 90% Of Iraq /afganistan Vets

[Berta]

Last night the very notable Prof. Linda Bilmes of Harvard University was the special guest at SVR radio.

Not only has Prof Bilmes been before Congress and in HVAC hearings on veterans issues- she has written many important papers and a book that are well researched as to the long terms affects of the war in the cost of sacrifice.

Her January 2007 paper on "Soldiers Returning from Iraq and Afganistan"

revealed that " nearly 90 percent of claims are appproved." She had to leave the show before I could get a clarification on that-but I assume she certainly means the claims specifically from Iraq and Afganistan veterans.

What this figure, nor the paper reveals however is that I would guess close to 90 % of the awards might well be wrong.

It seems to me that the VA is certainly awarding many many Iraq/Afganistan vets either "0" % or 10% -

and as the news I posted here yesterday shows-

0 to 10 can get you a re-deployment-

and obviously the Iraq veteran at VA WAtchdog story-

who was awarded an unconscionable "0" % should have been at 100% SC plus SMC.

Since it is apparent that many Iraq and Afganistan veterans might well get low balled just as many of you here have been-this means that they too will be continuously in the system fighting for the proper rating along with thousands and thousands of veterans-

as our grateful Nation has assured they too will become of the overwhelming backlog which grows by the day.

If you received a legal VCAA letter on your claim-it told you exactly what they need in order to award.

If they said you have to Prove your nexus- than you have to Prove it-

If they obtain a VA medical Opinion that denies your claim-then only a medical opinion that supports the claim will help award it.

I have seen some claims at the BVA that go on and on- with lists of disabilities that should not even have been claimed.

Others are denied at the BVA because-in all of the time the claim took to get to the BVA-where no miracles happen-

the veteran still failed to send the VA want they asked for.

Some claims result in a long argument over how the evidence was weighed-yet only a doctor can professionally argue over medical evidence.

Worse yet are claims in the system that have no nexus and the vet has done nothing to find proof of the nexus.

I foresee that things will get worse before they get better-or they might never get better.

But if a vet can send to the VA what they specifically ask for in the VCAA letter-they have a much better chance obviously-of seeing their claim resolved-in their lifetime.

The VA has suggested that the influx of claims from newly returning disabled men and women has caused them to get further behind.

That simply does not hold up as a legitimate reason-

A combat disabled veteran's claim should be a no-brainer-

those claims are moving fast- the bad part is that those ratings are often totally wrong- thus the claim gets into the appellate state-into the stacks of our long standing claims.And the backlog continues to grow.

A VCAA letter or an SOC after a denial-will state clearly what is lacking in the claim.

A response to an SOC is not the time for a long argument-

it is the time to state you have satisfied the evidence they said you needed and you have enclosed it.(or that you need more time to get it)

If they keep ignoring it-just keep sending it.

and by ignoring it- I mean that the VA has never considered it at all.

[Jayg]

There's a whole lot at issue here. First and foremost is the political wrangling. Nobody wants to be thought of as not doing 'right' by America's 'warriors.' It's just real easy to overlook that we aged, fat, bald, hobbling and sagging old geezers (guys & gals) are "America's warriors" too.

Another thing is that it's a lot easier to find nexus to an event that happened withing the past few months or years than a few decades before.

While I have no doubt VA is lowballing a lot of folks just to say they did something, it must be considered that this generation of vets are, as we once were, in the fitness of youth. Many of the serious effects of their injuries will have little or no effect upon them for many years just as did ours.

I have no difficulty believing the influx of claims has set back VA. Here in Texas, we were considered a pretty Vet friendly system and things moved reasonably quickly. Then Katrina hit Louisiana. Texas got flooded (no pun) with cases from Louisianas wrecked VA system. The whole thing got royally bogged down. Processes that once took a few months went to years. It may be changing finally. Too soon to tell.

The bottom line is VA, woefully understaffed and funded to begin with, was ill prepared for the influx of claims.

I also suspect that in the past, we vets got out and whether through ignorance or just wanting to get on with our lives, ignored then minor aches and pains and plowed blindly ahead. This generation of vets is being counseled and advised to be sure and get theirs asap.

Just my .02.

[cowgirl]

Very interesing, 90%. I read the posted comments and admit I wasn't able to get on to hear last nights show. I'll have to mark my calendar better for next week.

I've glanced at VA morning reports and am amazed at the ratio of claims, appeals, etc. to the SOC's released. True the timeline for processing is a strong variable. From what I see, some state and regional SOC results seem somewhat balanced in contrast to claims filed, say a thousand claims filed and a few hundred SOC released. Others show a thousand claims filed and less than 20 SOC released.

I just have to wonder when reports show a few states with constant figures from week to week with low SOC releases.

cg

[yoggie2]

We are in the Digital age and a lot of these guys have been taped one time or another, When I went to the gulf war it was only cameras and as with my claim Pictures didn't mean crap and they would still our film if we had photographed the dead at the Hodgie-Mart. We learn to wait till we got home to develop our film, where as I went to Somalia and was not aloud to take pictures (we did any ways) because we were told they would attack us (the natives) because they thought we was stilling there soles. We were actually told this so Don't take any pictures of the people dead or alive. Where it seems now just about everyone has home Video of Violent fire fights from there units. Well injuries speak for them selves, I truly believe this is where the VA will short change or deny these guys. Just cause someone is connected, say like the fellar from the CNN interview 50% for in realty was the lost of any meaningful life what so ever. I bet the VA is hard at work now setting higher standards to rate someone and these new guys if your not in, its going to get harder....

Edited April 17, 2008 by yoggie2

[john999]

The boys at the DOD should not have planned a war if they did not have a plan to take care of the new disabled vets. I don't believe that 90% of claims from any group of vets are granted without years of appeals. Also, if by granted they mean 0% or 10% for a 100% injury or illness then that might be a tine possibility, but I still don't believe it. Figures lie, and liars figure. The spinmasters are hard at work creating new myths like VA health care being the best in the world and such BS.

Maybe in the immediate aftermath of the war in Iraq there will be an uptick in claims granted, but that will soon fade as the costs are realized. This war just like Vietnam was to be fought on the cheap and that includes the disabled vets.

[iraqx2]

I don't think the VA is underbudget or understaff. It is the aweful culture, aweful system, aweful waste, aweful operation, aweful management, and lack of true concerns for the Vets that are the true problems of the VA. Many of these actions are borderline criminal.

If the budget increased to 2 Trillion dollars a year, it will still be screwed up.

[SeattleShay]

It's very interesting that the new vets rated are almost all being "reviewd" and re-examined after a year or so.

I certainly don't remember this happening before.

Guess this is a way of "taking care" of the nation's heroes...then screwing them when no one is watching.

Yep, that's the VA !!!!!!