{"id":49239,"date":"2014-06-06T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2014-06-06T12:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=49239"},"modified":"2015-01-14T08:53:03","modified_gmt":"2015-01-14T13:53:03","slug":"va-issues-part-v-we-have-met-the-enemy-and-he-is-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=49239","title":{"rendered":"VA Issues, Part V: “We Have Met the Enemy, and He Is Us.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Part 5 of a series. Part 1 can be found here<\/a>; part 2, here<\/a>; part 3, here<\/a>; part 4, here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Maybe my previous articles haven\u2019t p!ssed you off yet. If not, I guess I\u2019m not trying hard enough. (smile)<\/p>\n

However, if the previous articles haven’t made you angry . . . keep reading.\u00a0 I\u2019m guessing this one just might.<\/p>\n

Why?\u00a0 Because now I\u2019m going to discuss us vets. As a group, our hands are far from clean.<\/p>\n

If fact, collectively we are part of the problem. And we are part of the problem in at least 3 different ways.<\/p>\n

No, not all of us. But enough of us that we vets as a group IMO indeed bear some of the responsibility for the current VA mess.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n

The First Way:\u00a0 Fraudulent or Exaggerated Claims<\/span><\/p>\n

Some vets exaggerate \u2013 or outright lie through their teeth. That\u2019s contributed to the VA’s current issues in several ways.<\/p>\n

First, the obvious: some vets lie about what they did, and use those lies – sometimes along with forged documents – to get VA benefits they simply don\u2019t deserve. (Hell, in some cases they don’t appear to have ever even served in the military, but have conned the VA into granting them benefits anyway.)\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen many examples of this kind of lie here at TAH.<\/p>\n

Others simply exaggerate their \u201cinjuries\u201d, or file claims for conditions that are easily faked but hard to disprove. (\u201cLower back pain\u201d and PTSD come immediately to mind, but they’re hardly the only such easily-faked conditions.)\u00a0 A fair number of such specious claims get approved by \u201ceasy\u201d VA rating officials.<\/p>\n

Both of those types of dishonesty hurt, in multiple ways. First (and most obviously): false or exaggerated claims steal money from Uncle Sam \u2013 money that could otherwise be used to hire additional claims processors or medical personnel, extend facility operating hours, lower copayments, or otherwise provide services of benefits to deserving vets. Or it could be returned to the US Treasury to help reduce the deficit (which would also benefit vets over the long by keeping the US government financially more stable, thus helping assure continuation of future benefits).<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another way fake and exaggerated claims hurts: they clog the system. More people to be served with a fixed-size staff means less time per person served \u2013 for everything – along with longer waits. I\u2019m guessing this is a big part of why the VA takes so damn long to do anything.<\/p>\n

Finally \u2013 and least obviously \u2013 such fake claims and stories affect the perceptions and attitudes of non-vets. Constantly hearing stores (some number of which are IMO fake or exaggerated) about PTSD, close combat, service-connected injuries and conditions, etc . . . , that have \u201cmessed up\u201d veterans has two distinct effects on public opinion.<\/p>\n

First:\u00a0 those non-vets who are easily swayed (and gullible) will think that all vets are \u201cmessed up\u201d, and need \u201chelp\u201d. They\u2019ll thus support additional VA services (e.g., more money) that aren’t legitimately needed – in order to “help those poor unfortunate vets who can’t help themselves”.\u00a0 Take this too far (and IMO we already have), and this simply invites more fraud.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the cynics among non-vets will see that many such claims are obvious bullsh!t.\u00a0 They’ll begin pigeonholing vets as a group as dishonest whiners too lazy to make it on their own and looking for a “gravy train” to ride.<\/p>\n

Obviously neither of these perceptions is true. As a group vets are neither broken losers nor whiners looking for a gravy train.\u00a0 But sometimes perception is as important as reality, if not more so.<\/p>\n

The Second Way: We Vets Lobby. Bigtime. And Effectively.<\/span><\/p>\n

Quick question: how many formally-recognized, nationwide Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs) are there? Five? Ten? Twenty?<\/p>\n

Yeah, right. By my count, try over one hundred fourty<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (I get 144, but I only counted the list once) that are formally recognized by the VA. Plus God only knows how many more \u201cinformal\u201d or \u201cunofficial\u201d ones.<\/p>\n

To be recognized as a VSO by the VA, the entities \u201cmust be a Non-Profit that are (sic) National in scope, of good reputation, in existence and involved with Veterans for a minimum of three years, dedicated to a wide range of Veteran\u2019s issues with a membership of at least 1,000 or be Congressionally recognized.\u201d\u00a0 So we\u2019re not talking some club formed by a dozen guys in a bar when we’re talking about recognized VSOs.\u00a0 We’re talking about organizations that are nationwide in scope, with 1,000 members or Congressional support, and which are going concerns.<\/p>\n

So, what do these organizations do? They help vets, right? They provide support, assist with paperwork, and other such things to help vets \u201cget what\u2019s coming to them\u201d?<\/p>\n

Yeah, they do that. I\u2019d guess maybe that\u2019s about 10% of what they do.<\/p>\n

What do they do the rest of the time? IMO, mostly \u201cThey provide a voice for veterans on veterans\u2019 issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let me translate that: bluntly, they’re lobbyists<\/em>.\u00a0 They lobby Congress and the public. Why?\u00a0 They try to “build more support” (i.e., get more $$$) for veterans programs, or to get new benefits approved.<\/p>\n

And they do a pretty damn good job of that lobbying, too. Look no further than the recent changes (2009) regarding Agent Orange becoming a presumptive exposure<\/a> for those serving in Vietnam or along the Korean DMZ (1968-1971 only). Yeah, that took a while \u2013 and it took having a Vietnam vet as VA Secretary to make that happen. But if you don\u2019t think lobbying by VSOs played a huge part in making that happen, you\u2019re fooling yourself.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s hardly the only case. The VA has established a Gulf War Registry<\/a> along the same lines for \u201cenvironmental exposure\u201d conditions related to service in the Persian Gulf region from 2 August 1990 until, well, now. My guess is that a sh!tload more stuff will fairly soon become \u201cpresumptive\u201d for service in that region, too \u2013 whether or not requisite exposure can be documented or causation is ever scientifically demonstrated. A few conditions already have been so recognized<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bottom line: VSOs lobby like hell for more benefits (and $$$) for vets across the board. It\u2019s what they exist to do.<\/p>\n

And we vets support the hell out of them. Because, well, \u201cWe deserve it, dammit!\u201d<\/p>\n

The Third Way: We Work the System, Because, Well, \u201cWe Deserve It, Dammit!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an excerpt of a comment I ran across recently at TAH. I won\u2019t ID the writer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis just strikes a nerve with me! When WE return home from a WAR it\u2019s really just the beginning! This is when WE need the most help! WE should NEVER be turned away!! Never be put on a waiting list !!! We shouldn\u2019t have to fill out b.s. paper work or claims!! All thi(sic) should be done (happily) for US!\u201d<\/p>\n

Let me translate that into what many non-vets see\/hear when reading the above:<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m a vet, so Uncle Sam owes me. He should take care of me. I deserve it, dammit!\u201d<\/p>\n

There’s some truth there. And it is indeed true about the specific case about which the individual who wrote the comment was referencing. In that particular case, the VA miserably failed the individual in question, leading to his untimely death.<\/p>\n

But that kind of statement also points out what I see as a larger problem. IMO, we vets \u2013 as a group \u2013 have fallen to some extent into the same \u201cI\/me\/mine\/you owe me\/gimme\u201d mentality that has become pervasive in the US over the past 30 to 40 years. We expect \u2013 no, we demand<\/em> \u2013 that Uncle Sugar \u201ctake care of us\u201d.<\/p>\n

As a group, we vets \u201cwork the system\u201d bigtime to make that happen.\u00a0 And we do that in ways far beyond merely supporting VSOs and their lobbying efforts on our behalf.<\/p>\n

Vets leaving the service today are filing VA claims at historically unprecedented rates. The rate of military personnel leaving the service filing a VA claim has risen from 21% in the early 1990s to 45% in 2012<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yeah, that loads the system a bit.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not just claims from younger, Iraq\/Afghanistan vets that are clogging the system. Those 2.5 million Iraq\/Afghanistan vets filed only about 20% of VA claims that were pending last year<\/em>. Another 8% weren\u2019t clearly identified as to the vet\u2019s era.<\/p>\n

Who filed the other 72% of VA claims pending in 2013? Vietnam, Gulf War, and Peacetime vets<\/a>. (Additional details to accompany the linked graphic are found in this article<\/a>.) In fact, more claims were pending that had been filed by vets of both Vietnam (37%) and the Gulf War (24%) in 2013 than claims that had been filed by vets of Iraq\/Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Older vets today are also filing additional claims and requests for reexamination and re-rating at historically unprecedented rates. And the increase really began to spike in 2009 with the announcement of presumptive Agent Orange exposure for Vietnam and the Korean DMZ.<\/p>\n

In spite of IAVA and others\u2019 claims, it isn\u2019t just the \u201cyoung vets\u201d from Iraq and Afghanistan who are clogging the system with their claims and getting \u201cscrewed\u201d as a result, though they are indeed part of the issue. Their claims are only a relatively small part of the huge increase in VA claims recent years.<\/p>\n

There’s also the whole “presumptive” issue.\u00a0 There are a sh!tload of conditions that the VA regards as presumptively connected to herbicide exposure (e.g., Agent Orange and other types of herbicides) \u2013 including heart disease, respiratory cancers, prostate cancer, various forms of leukemia, type II diabetes,<\/a> and many others.\u00a0 The VA has now decided that anyone who ever set foot in Vietnam (or a whole bunch of other places) is now “presumed” to have been exposed – whether or not there’s any evidence they actually were.\u00a0 So guess who\u2019s going to pay for treatment for those presumptive conditions for anyone who ever set foot in Vietnam (1962-1975) or offshore, or Thailand, or served near the Korean DMZ (1968-1971)?<\/p>\n

You got it: the VA. Or in other words, the US taxpayer.<\/p>\n

You and me.<\/p>\n

Oh, and as I noted above the VA has already established a Gulf War registry and a few presumptive conditions for anyone who served in the Persian Gulf, too.\u00a0 So it looks like this expansion of presumptive eligibility isn’t going to stay unique to Vietnam.\u00a0 Stand by for multiple future rounds of lobbying for this type of expanded ‘presumptive coverage” for conditions someone thinks might be associated with service in the Persian Gulf or Central Asia.<\/p>\n

Why? IMO, that answer should be kinda obvious. There\u2019s money to be had<\/em> – either directly (in terms of increased compensation) or indirectly (in terms of additional free medical care and avoiding having to buy private health insurance). Couple that with an increased, \u201cWe deserve it, dammit!\u201d mentality, and the result is quite predictable.<\/p>\n

In some respects, Pogo was right. Collectively, IMO we vets are indeed part of the problem too.<\/p>\n


\n\"\"<\/center>. . .<\/p>\n

That’s it for the first part of this series.\u00a0 Don’t like what I’ve said?\u00a0 Take aim, and fire away.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s OK. That shows you\u2019re aware of and thinking about the problem.<\/p>\n

The VA today is seriously broken; it well may be FUBAR.\u00a0 Continuing as-is today is simply not a viable option.<\/p>\n

But some of what the VA does is absolutely needed.\u00a0 So if possible, we need to figure out how to un-FUBAR it.<\/p>\n

I’ll have some thoughts on what we might do to start un-FUBARing the VA at a future date – hopefully, soon.\u00a0 They might be good ideas, or they might be unworkable.\u00a0 But I’m willing to throw them out there for discussion.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Part 5 of a series. Part 1 can be found here; part 2, here; part 3, … VA Issues, Part V: “We Have Met the Enemy, and He Is Us.”<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-veterans-issues","category-veterans-affairs-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}