Vets win Agent Orange benefits

[babsbunny]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20070720-13493900-bc-us-agentorange.xml

Vets win Agent Orange benefits
SAN FRANCISCO, July 20 (UPI) -- A federal appeals court in San Francisco has upheld a lower court ruling backing Vietnam veterans who got cancer from exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange.

In the latest case, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for continuing to resist paying benefits to some 31,000 veterans who contracted leukemia as a result of serving in Vietnam, The Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

"Those young Americans who risked their lives in their country's service and are even today suffering greatly as a result are deserving of better treatment from the Department of Veterans Affairs than they are currently receiving," Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote in the opinion.

[anitar1]

1. well, hey, that only took a few years. sarcasm

[leez34]

2. _

I work for the VA in compensation and pension. Of note is that this ruling awarded presumptive benefits for leukemia as a result of Agent Orange - there are several other diseases on that list, and now leukemia has been added. To be honest, I didn't even know it wasn't already on there. It's not that huge - although it is huge for those vets who it affects, especially since benefits will get paid all the way back to their original dates of claim.

What will be a bigger deal is when a ruling is made on Navy vets and Agent Orange. Currently "blue water" Navy vets do not fall under Agent Orange presumption. This is kind of a slippery slope. As it stands right now, diabetes type 2 is on the list, so anyone on the ground in Vietnam who gets diagnosed with DM2 later in life will get benefits. It obviously can't be proven that Agent Orange is to blame, but all things being equal we rule in favor of the vet. If that is opened up to Navy vets, that is a huge amount of money coming out of the government. Anybody around here want to weigh in on this?