legislation and frustration

Recently Anthony wrote about the new legislation that was just passed. Among other things, this bill allows veterans to have attorneys represent them earlier in the compensation claim process. While on the surface this seems to be good news for veterans, I don't believe that it is, at least not initially.

Veterans are currently represented by claims specialist from National Veterans Organizations, such as the American Legion or the Disabled American Veterans. These groups assist veterans with the paperwork and hearings necessary to pursue their service-connected compensation claims, such as loss of limb, PTSD, etc. Where these organizations fall short is in giving advice to veterans about how best to document and support a claim.

Maybe there just isn't time, but it seems that most veterans end up doing the supportive work on their own, and often after finding out what additional supportive information they need when their claim is rejected or denied by the VA. In theory, the VA also would help the veteran support their claim. In reality, it is a very adversial process.

So, in march the attorneys. Well, VA claims procedures are not taught in law school. It's not a regular court of law. It's a bureacracy with mountains of rules and procedures, and case precedents. How will these attorneys be trained? On the job?

The other issue is payment. Many times a VA comp claim can take ten years or more to go through the system before the veteran is compensated. This is called back pay, paid in a lump sum. There is no interest paid on these delayed payments, even if (as is often the case) VA errors and/or delays caused the late payment. The attorneys will be paid up to 20% of this back pay for their services, minus a 5% or $100 payment to the VA for their processing of the fee check.

So, not only will claims still be a time-consuming experience for veterans, more veterans will now pay out of the back pay for which they have been waiting so long.

Not to worry though, the bill also allows for 500 rental vouchers for homeless veterans for 2007. And a few more for the years following. Surely that will help!

On to rural health care. Right now VA medical facilities are located in large cities, although the majority of recruits are from small towns. So when soldiers return home, most of them go back to their home towns.

The present medical situation makes for long commutes for medical care for many rural veterans. We are talking hours of travel each way. Sick veterans with limited financial resources are trying to access health care that is only available in urban areas. It's not easy.

The new legislation allows for funding to explore better ways of providing health care to rural veterans, including something called "fee basis" which provides for local health care from non-va providers. If this happens it would be good, I think, but expensive. So I'm not at all convinced it will be implemented on a meaningful basis.

In the meantime, our country is seeing, and will continue to see, more wounded soldiers returning to civilian life, and needing these services. Let's hope that our country provides for them. Better yet, write to your congressperson and senators and let them know that support for veterans, compensation claims, and medical care is important to you, a voter.

Remember, supporting veterans is a good way to show the government the true cost of war.