Posts Tagged ‘ Vets ’

Is This What Our Vets Fought For? We’ve gone AWOL on them…

November 11th, 2010. By Hunter West

It’s Veteran’s Day today. A day when the country stops (hopefully), to give pause to those brave men and women who fought the great fight, so that we may be free. 

But there’s more to it than that. Our veterans served with honor, on behalf of their countrymen. Their country. 

What would they think of how [much of] America conducts itself today? 

Greedy banks granted mortgages, and loaned money to people who could ill afford to support the payments, all in the name of getting more business on the books than the next guy. That’s the simple answer for the sub-prime mortgage mess that resulted in the burst of the housing bubble and driving the US economy into a deep recession. 

Thousands have lost their homes, their jobs, and their livelihoods due to greed on the part of others. 

Is this what our veteran’s fought for? 

Some drug manufacturers sell pharmaceuticals while knowing they could be harmful—even Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: VA Benefits, VA Claims, Veterans, Veterans Day, Vets
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It’s Unacceptable: Vets Face a Battle on the Homefront, too

November 11th, 2010. By Kristine B

With Veterans’ Day upon us, Pleading Ignorance takes a break from explaining legalese and takes the opportunity to thank veterans for all they have done—and all they have sacrificed. And we look at some of the battles veterans face when they return home, and ask why we can’t do more for the people who have sacrificed so much?

Each year on Veterans’ Day, we take the time to pay tribute to those who have sacrificed so much—in some cases, their lives—in the service of their country. We take a moment to remember those who died and give our respect to veterans who so bravely fought, and continue to fight, so that many of us don’t have to.

I’d like to think that Veterans’ Day still means something, but some of the thank you’s might seem a bit hollow, considering the treatment that veterans return home to. After facing horrors that many of us can’t even conceive of, they come home to long and often complex claims processes, face having their very real claims of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or traumatic brain injury (TBI) declined or questioned, and receive sometimes questionable medical treatment at the hands of Veterans Affairs medical centers and hospitals. They face medical malpractice and unreasonably denied disability claims.

It’s unacceptable.

Back in 2007, veterans spoke before Congress about horrific conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Those conditions included one sergeant being released to outpatient treatment within a week of being shot in the head, despite having a TBI and having lost an eye. The same sergeant faced delayed treatment because of lost documents and ultimately had to take his medical care into his own hands because no one from continuing care would contact him.

At the time, acting secretary of the Army, Pete Geren, stated, “We have let some soldiers down,” (as quoted in The New York Times (3/6/2007).

It’s unacceptable.

These are people who have given up so much for their country—they deserve more than to be “let down”. They deserve the best possible medical care, not weeks and months of waiting for Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: VA Disability, Veterans, Veterans Day, Vets
Posted in Pleading Ignorance, Veterans | 5 Comments »

Grassley ticked at Backlog of Veterans Claims

March 17th, 2010. By AbiK

Yesterday, Senator Grassley fired off a letter to Eric Shinseki—Secretary of Veterans Affairs—sharing his outrage at the number of veterans benefits claims that have gone to appeal and have been unjustifiably denied. According to figures presented in a recent case before the Supreme Court, Astrue v. Ratliff, between 50 to 70 percent of veterans benefits appeals fall into what Grassley refers to in his letter as “not just wrong but unjustified” denials.

Words like “startling”, “dysfunctional”, “cause for concern”, and “alarming” in Grassley’s letter convey the extent to which he—and Chief Justice Roberts who presided over arguments in the Supreme Court case—feel the backlog on vet disability claims is severe, growing and unacceptable.

Grassley is seeking answers to the following questions in an effort to improve the quality of Veterans Administration (VA) claims decisions and to reduce the number of unnecessary appeals:

1. What is the accurate percentage of veterans claims appeals in federal court where the government’s position is found to be unjustified?

2. What is the VA doing to improve the quality of VA claims decisions and reduce unnecessary appeals?

3. What is the total amount of attorney’s fees paid by the VA under the Equal Access to Justice Act for each of the past 5 years?

4. What is the source of the funds for attorney’s fees paid by the VA and were funds diverted from another part of the VA budget to pay these costs?

And he’s looking for those answers by March 26th. Stay tuned.

Tags: Denied Disability, VA, Veterans, Veterans Benefits, Veterans Disability, Vets
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