87% Of Gulf War Illness Claims Nationwide Are DENIED

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Most Americans believe that our military veterans should get health care from the government -- especially when their injuries are connected to their military service. But the government is still trying to avoid compensating veterans who have gotten Gulf War Illness. They are denying a shockingly large number of these claims.

Here is part of a good article by Jeremy Schwartz in the Austin American-Statesman on the subject:

Department of Veterans Affairs benefits officials in Waco have denied a whopping 92 percent of claims related to Gulf War illness, giving Central Texas veterans one of the highest denial rates in the nation, according to data in a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report.

The report found serious and persistent problems with how the VA handles the complicated Gulf War benefits claims, ranging from poorly trained examiners to inconsistent methods of handling claims in different regions of the country. For example, in the continental United States denial rates ranged from 47 percent in Boston to 95 percent in Roanoke, Va., according to an analysis by the advocacy group Veterans for Common Sense.

The VA estimates that 44 percent of the 700,000 service members who served in the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War have developed such symptoms as joint pain, chronic fatigue syndrome and neurological problems after returning home from war. The illnesses are believed to have been caused by exposure to toxic elements like smoke from burning oil wells, depleted uranium and chemical warfare agents such as mustard gas.

Nationally, the VA denied 87 percent of Gulf War illness related claims in 2015, the most recent year data was available, a denial rate that has increased over the past five years. For all other claims, the VA denied disability claims at a rate of 43 percent.

“(Gulf War illness) disability compensation claim laws and regulations need urgent overhaul,” said Paul Sullivan, director of veteran outreach for the Bergmann and Moore law firm and a Gulf War veteran whose own Gulf War claim remains in limbo after 25 years. “The issue of GWI claims is here to stay for several more decades. As Gulf War veterans age, we will file more claims … because our conditions continue manifesting and worsening, thus revealing the true long-term cost of war and toxic exposures on our health.”

Veterans and advocates fought for years to convince the VA to recognize Gulf War illness and compensate veterans suffering its effects. But while the VA has taken some steps to expand eligibility for compensation, experts say the department continues to make it unduly difficult to file and win a benefit claim.

Advocates concede that Gulf War illness claims are among the most difficult claims that VA examiners encounter. According to Michael Figlioli, deputy director of Veterans of Foreign Wars, Gulf War illness is “intrinsically difficult to diagnose and treat. … (There is) no one distinctive set of symptoms that allow for a single, unmistakable diagnosis.”

The clinical names for the two main categories of Gulf War illness reflect that uncertainty: Medically Unexplained Chronic Multisymptom Illness and Undiagnosed Illness.

Even so, government investigators found that the VA does a poor job educating medical examiners charged with identifying the illness.

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The Military's Dirty Secret

Here's a rather shocking statistic from the Veterans Affairs Department. About 15% of all the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who seek medical care from the VA have experienced some kind of sexual trauma while serving in the military -- ranging from serious sexual harassment to outright rape.

While this is experienced by soldiers of both sexes, it affects about 1% of male veterans. But at least one out of every seven female veterans has suffered sexual trauma. This trauma makes them 1.5 times more likely to need mental health services from the VA.

The survey done by the VA doesn't cover active-duty soldiers, because they don't receive services from the VA. But just think about this. In 2004, there were 212,000 women serving in the military -- about 35,000 were officers and 177,000 were enlisted personnel. I suspect the numbers are even higher today.

Let's take the officers out of the equation (although many of them may suffer the same kind of trauma). One-seventh of the remaining 177,000 is about 25,300. That's a big number to likely be victims of military sexual trauma.

Making matters even worse, the VA says about 40% of the veterans seek help from the VA. They suspect the number that really needs help is probably higher, but many of them are unaware they can be helped.

Frankly, this whole situation is outrageous. I don't think for a minute that the military can't do anything to eliminate this sexual trauma, whether it is harassment or rape or anything else. They simply haven't gotten serious about eliminating the problem.

It is time that we, the American public, let our politicians and military leaders know that we won't put up with this kind of behavior in our military anymore. And being at war is no excuse. Our military women deserve better.

VA Lies To Congress About Vets

If there's one thing the Bush administration has been consistent about, it is lying. They have lied about little things and big things, important things and unimportant things. They have lied to their friends and their enemies. They have lied to Congress and to the American people.

So I guess it shouldn't surprise us to see they plan to finish their 8-year stretch still lying. Maybe they've been lying so long they've forgotten how to tell the truth. This time, it's the Veteran's Administration (VA).

We all know that 4047 American soldiers have been killed in the Iraq War. It's hard to hide an obvious cost like the death statistics. But there are hidden costs to this unnecessary war -- like the psychological casualties among the soldiers who have returned home. It's much easier to lie and hide this cost.

According to the statistics released by the VA, 790 veterans of the war tried to commit suicide in 2007. That sounded bad enough, but now we find through VA internal e-mails that this was a lie. The actual number of attempted suicides among returning veterans was about 12,000 in 2007. That wasn't just a lie -- it was a gigantic whopper!

Over 300,000 of the returning veterans suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or Major Depression. Only half of these have sought help, and of those, only half have received a "minimally adequate" treatment. This is a huge number of psychologically wounded veterans, and the Bush policy is creating more every day.

As Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington) pointed out, some of the more violent symptoms may not show up for many years. She said, "I think we ought to be worried. They can be walking time bombs for decades. I hope everyone in the VA understands this."

It's easy to see why the Bush administration is trying to hide these war casualties. This is a huge and growing problem that will affect our country for many years. We are paying a terrible price to soothe Bush's pride, control Iraqi oil and enrich a lot of giant corporations. It is time to end this nonsense.

We must pull our troops out of Iraq -- the sooner the better.