Part Of The Backlog Is Caused By The Economy

[JamesBreckenridge]

I thought that the reasons claims were up 14 percent was because we were fighting two wars for the past 8 years... but I'm told that the numbers don't bear that out. Lord knows that I only rarely get a Global War On Terror (GWOT) vet's claim. Almost all of my claims are Vietnam vets and retired peacetime vets, coming in for their first claim ever, or claiming every condition under the sun as secondary to their service connected condition.

I think it's the economy. Social Security is experiencing exactly the same thing we are.

<i>Applications for retirement benefits are 23 percent higher than last year, while disability claims have risen by about 20 percent. Social Security officials had expected applications to increase from the growing number of baby boomers reaching retirement, but they didn't expect the increase to be so large.

What happened? The recession hit and many older workers suddenly found themselves laid off with no place to turn but Social Security.

"A lot of people who in better times would have continued working are opting to retire," said Alan J. Auerbach, an economics and law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. "If they were younger, we would call them unemployed."</i>

From http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090927/ap_on_...y_retirements_8

I'm not trying to justify our backlog, but rather to shed some light on part of a multifactorial cause.

[LarryJ]

I don't think that the main reason out 8 plus year War is the biggest contributor. The VA has always tried to operate on margin thin reserves and now we see what has happened. It will take years to straighten this mess out.

If the VA would offer me ChampVA I would opt out of VA.

Now, you know, that is a "novel" idea, Pete. The Wife, she has CHAMPVA. She goes to the doctor that she wants to go to. They treat her like she LIKES to be treated (the docs that she sees, well, they are the ones that you see in the "Best 100 doctors in Dallas/Ft. Worth", the ones with names like "Stanford""Yale""Johns Hopkins"Mayo Clinic" on the diplomas on their walls (The Wife is also The Nurse that practices alongside The Best 100 Doctors According to "D" Magazine, etc., and she knows These Things). And, She has CHAMPVA, and they pay like clockwork, and they get it right, and they cover her medications, and she has supplemental insurance through AMRA (American Military Retirees Association) for the portion of her care that CHAMPVA does NOT pickup (so, her healthcare cost NOTHING except the $88 a quarter that the AMRA supplement costs).

SHE HAS BETTER HEALTHCARE AS A "DEPENDENT" OF A 100%'er, THAN THE 100%'er HAS!

So help me. She does.

HECK YEAH, I'LL TAKE SOME OF THAT CHAMPVA!!!! Sit in a posh waiting room, wait no MORE than 15-20 minutes, fresh coffee while I'm waiting, and they call me "sir"....HELL YES! Gimmee some of dat! PLEASE???!!!

[GuaymasJim]

It would be more accurate to state that the backlog of VA claims is harming the economy.

However, I agree that the economy is contributing to the backlog of VA claims. However, I believe access to the enormous amount of information which is now readily available on the internet is helping older vets understand that many of them are entitled to some benefits, so more are applying for those benefits. Our battered economy probably started them down that path--particularly medical care. I have, and will, never criticize a veteran for seeking the benefits to which (s)he is entitled. I am very much against the "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" approach practiced by some VSOs because it slows the system down even further. With the information available here on hadit and on Watchdog, almost any veteran could produce a professional competent claim which would be more difficult to deny at the RO level; and much more likely to prevail on appeal.

I believe the healthcare crisis facing the US is probably the largest contributor to the backlog. Since it runs hand in hand with the economic and financial crisis it would be difficult, if not impossible, to separate out which one is the worst. (Another full disclosure: I abhor even the idea of "for profit" hospitals. If that makes me a socialist then so be it. Since we all pay collectively (taxes) for deploying a huge military, employing tens of thousands of police and teachers, using the Interstate highways, and for the functioning of every Executive Branch agency--like the VA for instance, we could all be labeled as socialists. It is my opinion that our Constitution (Article I, Section 8 orders the Congress to provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States...; as does the Preamble to that document. In 1966, a court decision in Michigan (Ellis v. City of Grand Rapids, 257 F. Supp. 564 W.D. Mich. 1966) confirmed the founders intent concerning "Promote the General Welfare". The court pointed to the Preamble's reference to "promot[ing] the general Welfare" as evidence that "[t]he health of the people was in the minds of our forefathers. The concerted effort for renewal and expansion of hospital and medical care centers as a part of our nation's system of hospitals, is as a public service and use within the highest meaning of such terms. Surely this is in accord with an objective of the United States Constitution: ‘... promote the general Welfare.' With the recent court decision that veterans' benefits are "a property right" protected by the Due Process provisions of the 5th Amendment of the US Constitution, I expect some fierce legal battles in the not so distant future. The law is on our side.

(Full disclosure: Many here know that I strongly supported a candidate/party in the last election. My preferred candidate/party won. This post really has nothing to do with who won what office. It has everything to do with the impact that our battered economy is having on veterans and our benefits.) Having said that, I am more than a little upset at the glacial movement and the constant partisan bickering on healthcare issues by both political parties. The President cannot change things by edict, but he/she can take on the bully pulpit and get Congress off its fat butt. So far, at least publicly, he has not done so. I am angry about that. No other Congressional business is being conducted while grown up educated people on both sides of the political aisle lie, misrepresent the nature of the US healthcare situation while making absolute fools of themselves and us.

I suppose what makes me angrier that most other things is the disrespect we as veterans have to endure. It devastates me how very little we really matter. I am too old, tired, and broken down to have it distress me very much when I am personally dissed, but I go ballistic when I see the nation is dealing with the younger vets. I read cases here and elsewhere that bother my for weeks on end. It seems as if the VA is doing to these newer veterans what they did to us went we returned from VA, because folks the VA IS doing to them what they did to us. The only major VA improvement I have seen is the new GI Bill. I bet I am not the only one who wonders where I might be right now if we had received the same benefits as our fathers and our sons and daughters. I take some comfort in the fact that a disabled VN veteran (Marine no less) rammed the bill down Congress's throat.

So, yes the economy is contributing to the VA backlog of claims, but the backlog of claims is hurting the economy even worse. The compensation a disabled vet gets goes directly into the economy in the form of purchases as well as everyday expenses. Fairly and promptly compensated disabled veterans buy new cars. Fairly and promptly disabled compensated veterans buy houses and rent apartments. This list could go on for ever, but one thing is crystal clear:

Fairly and promptly disabled compensated veterans are an economic benefit to the economy not a drain on it!

PS Bronco you are absolutely correct about the compensation packages for VA execs. My VAMC Directer got a $24,000 bonus while one of his clinical directors embezzled $345,000 right under his nose. Go figure!