The PACT Act Extends Benefits To Many Veterans – Can The VA Handle It?
After a long fought battle, the Sgt. First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act is being signed into law. The PACT Act will expand access to VA health care and benefits for veterans who were exposed to toxins during war, but the fight for these rights is not yet over.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) must now implement the legislation efficiently amid concerns of the department’s poor track record and existing backlogs.
The PACT Act extends benefits eligibility to more than 3.5 million veterans who were exposed to toxins during their military service
The VA encourages veterans to apply for benefits and has created a web page to answer questions about who qualifies for benefits under the legislation.
The PACT Act seeks to expand VA benefits eligibility to more than 3.5 million veterans who were exposed to toxins during their military service — including illnesses resulting from exposures to toxic burns and Agent Orange.
Thousands of Gulf War veterans are still waiting on the benefits they rightfully earned.
It also adds 23 conditions to the department’s list of presumptive illnesses, meaning that veterans don’t have to prove that their illness was due to military service.
The VA has also connected a network of providers who will conduct patient assessments on military exposures, and expects to have a fully operational call center by January to help veterans concerned about environmental exposures.
Many hgave concerns the added VA workload will create a large backlog of unaddressed cases.
But despite the passage of the bill and added VA resources, there are concerns with how the VA will go about implementing the legislation. The new system could potentially limit access to outside physicians should veterans seek care outside the VA, while contributing to an even longer backlog of claims waiting to be processed.
“What this bill is authorizing is the core mission of what the Department of Veteran Affairs is there for and should be doing,” David Shulkin, VA secretary from March 2017 through February 2018, told The Hill. “That means that the VA should be prioritizing taking care of these particular veterans. And when the agency or any organization has finite resources — which every organization has, even the US government — it requires that you prioritize what you’re working on.”
Veterans need clear communication on the benefits they may qualify for, and how to claim them.
“In the agency as big as the VA, what I found was that one thing that leadership can do is be clear about its priorities, and when that happens, great things can happen in this organization,” Shulkin continued. “Now, there are a lot of competing priorities. But because this is a group of people that for whatever reason, we have been making wait — literally for decades, in many cases —I believe that gives them the right to be prioritized.”
The PACT Act expands the VA’s capacity to handle an increase in the number of claims by investing in VA claims processing, hiring more personnel, and investing in 31 major clinics and research facilities in 19 states.
Help us hold the VA accountable for its promise to veterans!
What veterans need from the VA now is clear communication on the benefits they may qualify for, and how to claim them.
Help us support veterans who still need help by asking the VA to uphold its promise. Click below and tell the VA to put veterans first as the PACT Act is implemented, delivering health care swiftly to those who need it most!
