ptsd Congress To Investigate All Preumptaive Conditions

[OnRiver]

ap Democratic Sen. Daniel Akaka (uh-KAH’-kuh) is chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. He said today that the committee will consider changes to the policy involving so-called presumptive conditions at a hearing in late September.http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/20100831/NEWS01/100831048/1002/rss

guys this is just the beginning as the U.S. is broke....better take this seriously....a review of PTSD could eventually follow as well as service related illnesses. They came first for the Communists,

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me

and by that time no one was left to speak up.

[john999]

US government and Taxpayers just cannot wait for Vietnam vets to die. It would be so much better and cheaper if we were all just dead. First they have to qualify us as undeserving freeloaders and fakes getting the big money from AO claims.

[OnRiver]

a few things PTSD is NOT a presumptive medical condition either you have it or you don't

the hearing in late September is for the new 3 "presumptive" conditions not even DMII that is a given already the subject is the IHD, hairy cell luekemia and the 3rd issue which I can't remember they are not going back and taking away already granted issues

veterans have enough problems without making stuff up

there are no "death panels" either

Sec Shinseki is going to have to justify the 3 new presumptive conditions he wants connected to AO nothing more and nothing less if Congress wants to deny them SC they have the power to unfund them, and then even if they don't you will still have veterans complaining that they are not getting paid back to when they were in Nam, or when they first started having heart problems etc bottom line is when did they file a claim for their medical problems that is related to these 3 conditions? Some will fall under the "Nehmer rules" and get paid back to when they first filed claims and were denied years ago other will get paid back to when they filed claims in the past few years since they started talking about cardiac conditions being related to AO and then you will have all the new vets that run in and file claims after the rules are enacted and their effective date will be the date they file the claim and then they will all start fighting about being cheated out of money some things never change

Making things up? hardly...try reading the AP and other news organsations that are out there right now investigating everything to do with all manner of monies allocated for veterans. Try reading the posts without giving your ''dont worry they wont take away benefits because both political parites have now come forward requesting not only reviews of the 3 new issues but also how the VA in the past has decided illnesses are funded. Webb is a democrate and Simpson is a retires republican both of the Senate. Webb was wounded and is highly decorated.Finally No one said that PTSD was a presumptive disease but it can be restudied etc. If you think that this veterns senate meeting is only about the Nemer rules you are sadly mistaken.

[jbasser]

I saw a discussion some years ago about the effect of Post Traumatic Stress disorder amoung certain groups of professionals in a training session.

The amazing thing was the amount of emergency workers that have ptsd as well as Veterans.

The discussion based the actual events that caused PTSD. The final discussion was based on the aspect that military folks were actually involved in the incident and the emergency workers were scene responders after the fact, even though they seen some gruesome stuff like Airplane crashes and ect.

It makes a person think that we are just a bunch of numbers, which we really are in the big picture.(What is the first thing the VA ask you before each and every exam, blood draw, porocedure. What is your last 4?.

They dont consider cutting the person, they just want to cut the numbers. Humanity is not really an option.

J

[Testvet]

It was not that many years ago that the Senate Veterans committee went after PTSD do you remember the 72,000 claims they wanted reviewed because PTSD compensation had gone from 1 billion a year in 1990 to 4 billion a year in 2005?

They made it thru 2100 claims before Congress shut down that fiasco, and that review showed that is wasn't the veterans lying about PTSD the problems were in the VARO's failure to properly document the files, the fraud rate was less than 2%. I don't condone any fraud and no one should but like a certain senator stated "I would rather see someone get a check they don't deserve, than have even one veterans get denied the check they do deserve". The reviews were ended by the VA after a vet committed suicide in New Mexico because he got one of the review letters.

I am sure there will be a lot of brow beating over the cost of veterans benefits, but compared to other govt programs the cost is really a small piece of govt spending and vets do spend their money in the local communities, it is an economic stimulus plan that does work, I hardly think vets are able to save their checks every month and make their savings accounts flow over, they spend it, houses, clothes, food, new cars etc, we are the middle class.

This hearing is because the VA Secretary decided to add on average for the next decade or so an additional 6 billion a year in compensation and it will add hundreds of thousands of new vets to the VA system that have not been in it up to this point, but adding heart disease opens the door to a huge new percentage of vets. As we all know Congress likes to spend money but usually they like to be the ones who decide when and where it is spent. The VA is the only Cabinet agency that has the ability to decide on it's own to grant presumptive issues and grant new spending and then demands Congress pony up the money to pay for it. We know Shinseki did not do this on his own, he has a boss he has to answer to, so it is safe to assume the White House signed off on this, before he announced it.

Now, the Sep 23 meeting will be a tug of war, if Shinseki can back up the IOM studies then it is better than a 50/50 shot the new rules will take effect, this is just before an election, I would be more worried if this hearing was on Nov 3. Then the way these Senators vote won't matter to the general public there will be plenty of time to make the voters forget before they have to run for re-election again.

I have enough stress in my life without getting bent on a "maybe" Congress does not have the stomach to "review PTSD" again not after the recent disaster. Myself I hope the new rules do go into effect for IHD chemical weapons are dangerous and since the Ranch Hand study ignored cardiac issues altogether that makes me ask why? Did they know it was going to be a problem? Most of the chemicals in the water and soil of Edgewood Arsenal all link to cardiovascular problems according to the CDC and the ATSDR so why should I think AO was any different. Why after the 1 Gulf War they only did a study on Sarin exposure? They knew mustard agents were also present at Kamisayah on March 19, 1991 when they destroyed the ammo bunkers, was it because they know what medical problems are caused by mustard agents and so they just ignored that substance, and not one veteran has been SC for exposure to mustard agents during the Gulf War. It hasn't been studied? Why my guess is it is the potential cost it would make these new AO rules look like pennies on the dollar.

I fight battles that are real not perceived I have an idiot Congressman and I don't have much nice to say about either Senator but I would not count on them for anything but I do let them know my opinions and they both listen to me as well as my wife does, but I tell them anyway why because it makes me feel better but does it change their minds I doubt it.

I will save my energy so I can keep breathing and cashing my disability checks