With US encouragement, VA disability claims rise sharply

[unhappycamper]

http://hamptonroads.com/2014/07/us-encouragement-va-disability-claims-rise-sharply-0

With US encouragement, VA disability claims rise sharply
By Alan Zarembo, Los Angeles Times

© July 18, 2014

LOS ANGELES

As Malvin Espinosa prepared to retire from the Army in 2011, a Veterans Affairs counselor urged him to apply for disability pay.
List all your medical problems, the counselor said.

Espinosa, a mechanic at Fort Lee in Virginia, had never considered himself disabled. But he did have ringing in his ears, sleep problems and aching joints. He also had bad memories of unloading a dead soldier from a helicopter in Afghanistan.

“Put it all down,” he recalled the counselor saying.

Espinosa did, and as a result, he is getting a monthly disability check of $1,792, tax free, most likely for the rest of his life. The VA deems him 80 percent disabled due to sleep apnea, mild post-traumatic stress disorder, tinnitus and migraines.

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I'll verify that first paragraph. Before you go to the VA WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING THAT'S MEDICALLY BOTHERING YOU.

Before I went to the VA last year, I listed everything from hearing loss to bad eyesight to a bad back to .....

My first VA appointment was in February of this year. So far I have a 10% disability from tinnitus and I'm starting an appeal to get some friggin hearing aides.

[DustyJoe]

1. newer and kinder VA ?

Wow, beats my 3 years waiting years ago for upgrades to worsening service connection ratings for

Shell fragment wounds in leg, chest, shoulder, back.
Shell fragments left in one leg and one lung.
25% muscle loss in leg and chest from shredded muscle tissue replaced by scar tissue.
Hearing loss/tinnitus from the explosion.

still waiting for ..... 46yrs after leaving the jungle

Agent Orange exposure service connection rating for
prostate tumor for the last 25yrs, now to be fair I did have a 10% rating for AO caused benign tumor prostate cancer back in 1998, but 2 yrs later in 2000 they yanked the 10% back off stating the tumor had to be malignant and active, benign wouldn't cut it. I told them i'd get back to them when it went malignant.
and
chloracne from dioxin exposure


Am glad to see the lines get shorter, or do they ?
It will be interesting to see if he gets service connection for the Aching Joints, plus getting them to list sleep apnea as service connected had to of been a chore.
I would jump on that like a cop on a donut.