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VA to Grant Benefits to All Veterans with ALS
On September 23, the Veterans Administration published regulations officially establishing ALS as a service connected disease! Effective immediately, all veterans with ALS will now have access to numerous VA benefits without having to prove that their disease was caused by service in the military.
This new policy means that ALL veterans with ALS will receive the benefits they need, deserve and have earned. Importantly, it is broad in scope and applies to all veterans diagnosed with ALS regardless of when or where they served and regardless of when they were diagnosed with the disease following service in the military.
This is a tremendous victory for all veterans and is the culmination of years of work by The ALS Association, the Greater Los Angeles Chapter, and veterans across the country. It is clear that our outreach - testifying before Congress, partnering with the VA, advancing research to identify the connections between ALS and military service and educating the public about this issue - have paid off.
The Association has been the leading organization advocating for this policy change at the VA for many years. In 2001, The Association strongly supported the VA’s decision to grant benefits to veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War and has championed legislative efforts to build on that policy so that it applies to all veterans with ALS.
According to studies, military veterans within the last century are nearly twice as likely to develop ALS as those with no history of military service, regardless of where or when they served in the military.
Most recently, The Association advocated for legislation (H.R. 5454) introduced by Congressman Henry Brown (R-SC) that would have established ALS as a service connected disease. Thanks to the combined efforts of the VA Secretary James Peake, members of Congress, The Association and veterans across the county this legislation no longer is needed.
"Veterans are developing ALS in rates higher than the general population, and it was appropriate to take action," VA Secretary James Peake said. "ALS is a disease that progresses rapidly, once it is diagnosed. There simply isn't time to develop the evidence needed to support compensation claims before many veterans become seriously ill. My decision will make those claims much easier to process, and for them and their families to receive the compensation they have earned through their service to our Nation."
“We are extremely grateful to Secretary Peake, Congressman Brown and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for standing on the side of veterans with ALS across the country,” said Gary Leo, president and CEO of The Association. “Thanks to their leadership, veterans with ALS will receive the benefits and care they need, when they need them. Thanks to their efforts, no veteran with ALS will ever be left behind.”
We again would like to thank all veterans for their efforts to advocate for this vital benefit. In particular, we would like to recognize three veterans with ALS whose outreach to Congress and the VA played critical roles in this victory: Jeff Faull, from our Greater Philadelphia Chapter, Tom Mikolajcik (USAF) Ret. who helped found our South Carolina Chapter and Jim Thew, from the Greater Chicago Chapter. Jeff, Tom and Jim deserve our thanks for their tireless efforts to make this benefit a reality. Click here to read more about these great advocates.
“Veterans living with Lou Gehrig’s Disease now have one less hurdle to face on an already difficult road,” said Steve Gibson, The Association’s vice president of government relations and public affairs. “Our heroes who have served in the military and those serving today can now be reassured that our government will fight for them just as they fought for us."
ALS, a fatal progressive, neurodegenerative disease, is striking at this nation’s heroes the hardest, but the reasons are not known at this time.
A summary of the regulation can be found here. The text of the regulation is available here.
Now that we have won this battle, it's time to make sure veterans with ALS receive the benefits they need as soon as possible. Therefore, we are providing the following links that include additional information on the new policy as well as guidance on how veterans can access benefits. The Association will be posting this and other information to our website in the coming days, including answers to frequently asked questions. However, if you have other questions about accessing benefits or about the new policy, please contact The Association's toll-free hotline at 1-800-782-4747.
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I believe the benefits apply to any service at any time now i think it has been upgraded since this article came out. Haven't read enough articles yet, but is important to get word out so anyone in this situation can get help without a hassle and get disability if it is needed.
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Well if they are saying veterans have increased numbers of the disease then something may be up. It wouldnt surprise me given the chemeical elements and compounds exposed to often for some. I know I let the VA know everything I was exposed to. Get it in writing!
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.
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Well if they are saying veterans have increased numbers of the disease then something may be up. It wouldnt surprise me given the chemeical elements and compounds exposed to often for some. I know I let the VA know everything I was exposed to. Get it in writing!
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There is definitely something up if they give disability for it without giving the veteran the third degree.
If they say numbers are higher then you can bet they are a lot higher because they do not give money away unless it stands out like a red thumb would!
My concern is that many veterans with it will not be aware of the chance in policy or that their problem is even related to service, and thus not get benefits they would help ease their life some.
I was really surprise when i saw the article on this and its relationship to service.
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Huh? This is good news for vets but I am confused. Why the heck would ALS show up in vets in 2 to 1 higher ratios than the general public?
Now this is something that needs major study! If they can figure out what is causing the higher rates they should be able to narrow the focus of study quite a bit. This also suggests that ALS has an environmental cause rather than a pathogenic cause. (At least IMO)
-------------------- No longer eligible for government service due to lack of tax issues.
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it'll be difficult BF, the military is sortof exempt from environmental regs. they do have their own rules and they work to improve them too.
i was HAZMAT person at a small base for several years. you wouldn't beleive all the crap i had to fix.
we used this solvent called PD 680 to clean up EVERYTHING...
PD 680 sounds innocuous enough...
but they finally started to change the compound in the nineties.. i don't know what version they are up to now, a quick search on the net won't even reveal what it is...
MEK is another one that may even be a component of PD680... methyl ethyl ketone, or as we called it, methyl ehtyl death...
it is commonly understood that solvents dissolve fats. the better the solvent? the better it dissolves fat. nerve cells are very fatty
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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quote:A number of other theories have been proposed, including autoimmune disorders, heavy metal poisoning, and even viral infection, but much more study is needed before these can be linked conclusively to ALS (Mitchell J 2000).
Is it possible that exposure to Depleted Uranium, which is known to cause to neurological disorders, could be the cause of the increase of ALS cases among Gulf-War veterans?
-------------------- One is never completely useless. One can always serve as a bad example.
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DU was also found in ammunition in certain weaponry in the current war in Iraq. Also in the armor for combat vehicles. Many vehicles bit by IEDs were set ablaze burning the armor and exposing the troops to heavy smoke and fumes of the metals.
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.
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I just keep coming back to stress and how the body copes with it.
I would be curious to see how Vietnam vets compare to Iraq vets percentage wise.
I think Vietnam soldiers were younger over all than Iraq soldiers and somehow i think we deal with stress a little better when we are younger, maybe there is just less of it when were younger.
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