diabetes Researchers Examine Increasing Veterans’ Disability Compensation

[carlie]

http://www.dailyfreepress.com/researchers-...ion-1.2028356#5

Researchers examine increasing veterans’ disability compensation

By Belén Cusi

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Share this article Published: Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Updated: Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The dramatic increase in the number of Vietnam War veterans receiving veterans’ disability compensation since the 1990s has been fueled more by growing incentives for lower-skill whites than by an actual increase in veteran disabilities, social science researchers said.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ph.D. candidate Brigham Frandsen, one of the authors of “The Complicated Effects of Military Service on Self-Reported Health,” spoke to about 20 students, professors and veterans at MIT Monday on his findings.

“The main point is to show the long term effect of serving in the military on disability rates,” Frandsen said. “This research speaks to an important component of the legacy cost of war, or at least of the Vietnam conflict and by extension to current wars.”

Frandsen said he found through his research that from 1999 to 2005, the number of veterans receiving compensation for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder doubled, rising from over 90,000 to about 180,000. PTSD was found to be the leading claim for compensation, with diabetes following close behind.

After the Agent Orange decision of 2003 where diabetes was determined to be service-related, he said, the number of veterans claiming compensation for diabetes increased by almost one third in just two years, rising from roughly 140,000 to 180,000.

Dennis Kenney, a veteran who fought in Germany, said he attended the lecture because he is interested in Frandsen’s research. He said he and his fellow veterans were told they could go home once relieved of their duties if they didn’t think they had any service-related disabilities.

“I think there were about eight out of 800 of us who left, myself included,” he said. “I wanted to go home.”

He said he and his peers were advised by older veterans to be picky about their disabilities and try to get as much as they could for compensation, that they should “keep their options open insurance-wise.”

Frandsen said eight million veterans receive compensation from VDC, one-third of whom are Vietnam veterans. Many of these claims are being awarded “individually unemployed” status, which automatically qualifies a veteran for the maximum payment of $2,300 tax-free per month for as long as they live, he said.

Increasing incentives and institutional changes in the late 1990’s may be the cause for the rise in veteran compensation, he said, specifically Vietnam-era veteran compensation.

“The overall effect of serving in the military for these veterans was small,” Frandsen said.

But he said he found a large effect specifically on low-skill white men.

“If you were a low-educated man, getting disability compensation though the program looks like a great deal,” he said. “One way to get compensation is to show PTSD or any other service-incurred disability, and the compensation is fairly generous.”

In the late 1990s, the individually unemployed status began to be granted more freely; extensive paperwork was no longer required, Frandsen said. The VDC also began to presume eligibility instead of requiring that veterans have to file for it, he said, and attitude changes could be another cause for the compensation increase.

Frandsen and his colleagues said they are not suggesting that veterans are committing fraud, but that they are responding to incentives. But the increasing compensation to Vietnam in the present day could mean less compensation for future veterans, such as those of the current war in Iraq, he said.

He said his overall conclusion is the legacy cost of war seems to be more political and incentive-driven than health-related, something more than an inevitable cost of war.

“We’re not suggesting anything,” Joshua Angrist, one of Frandsen’s co-authors, said. “We’re not into call to action, just pointing things out.”

[timetowinarace]

Well, I'm sure I'll get flamed for this but,,,,,,,, I agree with the findings for the most part.

Now I better explain myself.

I'll start by reminding everyone of this statement: "Frandsen and his colleagues said they are not suggesting that veterans are committing fraud".

The reason I agree, for the most part, is because they are simply saying the increase is not comming from Health related concerns, wich in my eyes is true. My position is that the VN Vets have the same health issues, at the same rate but because these issues are NOW more widely recognised and changes made within the VA have made it more worthwhile to fight for compensation. In other words, more veterans are not getting sick, more of them are recognised as qualifying for comp.

This will be the same for GW vets. In the future, GWI will become official within the VA. More doctors will recognize it and VA will 'loosen' it's regs to SC GW vet's. More GW vet's will get comp. It won't be because more GW vets get sick or sicker. It will be because as more of them are SC for their illness, others will come forward that have not wanted to fight for something most people don't believe in right now but will be willing to fight the 'easier' fight once it is reccognized.

Here at Hadit, I am seeing this with TBI right now. Now that the regs have changed, and more doctors understand the consequences of TBI, more older vet's are being diagnosed and are filing TBI claims. It's not that these veterans are getting sicker or there are more of them, it is because it is now possible to get more than 10% max for their problems.

Now I don't agree with everything in the report. Actually, it's some of the conclusions they make that I don't agree with. But I don't take these things as being 'anti-VN Veteran' but a lack of insight on their part. Take the example of IU. I agree with the findings that IU is being handed out more freely, the numbers support that. But what they are overlooking or not aware of is that the current ratings for mental conditions makes it very difficult for a veteran to qualify for 100% even if he/she is severly impaired or that a person with multiple rated disabilities will not get to 100% because of VA math no matter how much the TOTAL of those disabilities effects them. In basic terms, IU claims have increased because the rating codes are still inadaquate.

Sorry for the long post, but I thought I should explain why I agree with most of their findings. I don't see this as a shot at VN veterans. I think they ran the numbers and their conclusions are based on a very limited knowledge of the regs. They state many times that they 'are not suggesting anything'. The same thing could be said of GW vets in the future or TBI vet's now.

I think if they apply their number's to the reccognition of illnesses and injuries that were not reccognised(or was doubted) in the past, they could come to more concrete conclusions.

[Pete53]

When a Country goes to War they take on an obligation to help the Veterans who suffer due to their Service. I think that they were paying for the Civil War into the 1960's.

There are not near the amount of Veterans drawing 100% as many think and no one seems to consider that VA Hospitals are mainly teaching Hospitals and if anyone should know how bad it is than it should be the Interns who passed through the gates.

As I have said before I consider what the VA gives me as Retirement and there is no way it would be comparable to work income.I have a feeling that when the War is over that we will sink into the background not that we are nmot pretty far back as it stands now.

[Jayg]

There's the results of another study, (I don't know where to find it and ain't looking it up now) that noted with the new war activity, the flare up of PTSD in 'Nam vets.

What it amounts to is that many vets got treatment or otherwise found their balance. But now we have these new brush wars with no specific goal in sight against an essentially guerrilla enemy that is so reminiscent of 'Nam that it tipped the balance for many Vets. Add that recent economic pressures have increased stress exponentially, and this has impacted the lower echelons of the workforce, so that barely dormant PTSD has flared dramatically.

It as well may be that these conditions have held a great number of our Vets into that lower echelon unrecognized. But a vet with PTSD tendencies will veer away from high stress activities such as working while studying for higher education, the only potential for many of our working class vets.

So it isn't rocket, or MIT- science that there is a dramatic increase in PTSD claims. If you consider the onset of recent hostilities, as a starting point for a great increase in claims, with the number of years spent fighting those claims to a completion, it really is not at all surprising that there is such an exponential increase in the awards.

I rest my case...

[Commander Bob]

Well, I'm sure I'll get flamed for this but,,,,,,,, I agree with the findings for the most part.

As I fire up the old BBQ grill, please let me first say that I respect your many postings here on hadit, 'timetowinarace", However, I must disagree with you on this one. You quote, in agreement with Frandsen remarks, " veterans are not committing fraud"... If you read between the lines, that is exactly what he is suggesting. Also he adds that it is the low educated ignorant jerks that are committing that fraud. I say that for the most part "health related concerns" generate the rise in claims. Not politics. I think Frandsen and Josh Have their collective feet down their throats, and diminishes the supporters of such educated dribble.

Edited December 16, 2009 by Commander Bob

[Pete53]

My Service Connected Disability stole large and valuable chunks of my life. I feel that my loyal service earned the benefits that I get now. I do not feel that the VA was of any help at all in getting Service Connected.

That said I think that the VAMC in Dallas has been good to me and treated me for the most part fairly. I have heard many Veterans say the same thing but I know the VA and I know that they can be petty and vindictive.

When I had major problems I was earning in the 100,000 a year range. If I tried to go to work today it would be a miracle if I got much over minimum wage. The last time I worked I made 7 bucks an hour as opposed to almost 50 and a generous expense account and Company Car when I did not have panic attacks.

[timetowinarace]

As I fire up the old BBQ grill, please let me first say that I respect your many postings here on hadit, 'timetowinarace", However, I must disagree with you on this one. You quote, in agreement with Frandsen remarks, " veterans are not committing fraud"... If you read between the lines, that is exactly what he is suggesting. Also he adds that it is the low educated ignorant jerks that are committing that fraud. I say that for the most part "health related concerns" generate the rise in claims. Not politics. I think Frandsen and Josh Have their collective feet down their throats, and diminishes the supporters of such educated dribble.

I respect that you disagree with me. I knew most would.

I don't know how to word this without it seeming ignorant on my part, but I don't feel I need to "read between the lines" to infer that they mean anything other than what they say.

He also doesnt say anything about "ignorant jerks". I suppose I could put anything between the lines untill I see what I want to see. Not trying to be a smart azz, but if people wanted to, they could say "if you read between the lines at Hadit, they are telling people how to cheat the VA". We shouldn't read between the lines.

It happens to be true that the lesser skilled class file more claim. Why? We fill the majority of the services. A small percentage of the higher skill population give up their 6 digit incomes to join the military. I'm not so thin skinned to think that I am being insulted because I am of the lower skilled class. Are there more enlisted who are sick/injured than officers. Yep. There are more enlisted to get hurt.

The only comment they made that is without basis is the one about VN veteran claims hurting future claims. They don't explain their reasoning behind so it's hard to know what they meant.