The VA has a backlog of at least six months on disability cases, according to a new report.
That means that, unless he or she has some alternative means of support, the disabled vet has to go without even the bare necessities of life for half a year before the claim is even adjudicated. Actual payment will take even longer.
It's unconscionable, but it's not surprising. It's part and parcel of the Baby Doc Maladministration's shabby -- no, criminal -- treatment of veterans. It's that whole captalist-pig profit-driven positive-bottom-line people-are-raw-material mentality that has held the neocons in its grubby grip for years.
Take a look at what's happened to Social Security Disability: The first round of a claim is generally denied (over 90%!). Naturally a predictable percentage of these people accept their fate and go no further, for an immediate cost savings. Then, for the lucky few that are approved, finally, after they have slogged through an exhaustive appeal process, they finally get their money. If they haven't died or gone institutionally insane in the meantime.
And that lucky 10% who get their claims approved first time? Well, they find to their dismay that there is a five-month waiting period before they even get their first payment. And when that payment comes, there's no back pay for those five months.
Five fucking months?
Five months? Several years if you have to appeal? Who the hell can wait that long without an income? So what happens is that another large percentage of these people go back to work in spite of being disabled because they can't survive. Another huge cost savings for the system.
The VA disability program seems to be edging in this direction as well, all because this cheap-ass bunch of chickenhawk assholes refuse to honor this country's commitment to its veterans.
I've said it before, but I urge everyone to contact your elected representatives and demand that VA Health Care be a mandatory entitlement program, not subject to the budget whims of a veteran-hating president or a lip-service congress.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
VA Backlog Now Six Months
Posted by Farnsworth68 at 4:13 PM
Posts
6 Comments:
Pre-2003, A back log of six months was damn good in adjudicating disability cases, the typical case was 12-18 months and an appeal was even longer three years for me. The fastest I saw a case go through system was my Uncle Howie, Anzio fame, six months. I believe seriously injured soldiers still draw military pay before they are retired out of the service. If your in the bureaucratic 'middle somewhere' your gonna get screwed.
If you really want get pissed look at what our good old Insurance Company's are doing to people that are horribly injured. The legal beagle's bread and butter is a slip and fall, or whiplash. If you fall outside this norm your are looking at two to three years for the case to be heard, $50,000 in expert witness fee's, paid by you. If you happen to win the Insurance Company's will threaten an appeal that will take another 5 years. If you can't wait that long, they generously offer you a 25 cents on the dollar and your lawyer ain't waiting 5 years for his 33% of your settlement. A big case is solved by 18 holes of golf with your attorney and your case gets mysteriously dropped. I've seen it and it is beyond criminal.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2007-03-05-
jenna-bush_N.htm
i wasn't aware that jenna bush could read- let alone write but here she is writing a book! do ya think it's because she looks more like her dad that they want to shine the spotlight on her?
AGH, the link to the report at google is dead..
I need that article to post at my blog! Help!
Anyone? Buehler?
jae--
It's fixed now, but here's the link.
betmo--
What do you want to bet that it's ghost-written, just like Daddy's "autobiography", which should be filed in the fiction section in any decent library.
As if the backlog of disability claims wasn't enough, the VA is now up to six weeks behind in Montgomery GI Bill payments. While we are all used to the eight week delay in our first payment this time things are a little different. The VA is now also behind in the certification and payment of current students. That means that even if you have had no change in status, schools, programs, etc...you will still not be getting your monthly payment on time. The VA is citing the school reporting procedures as part of the problem because they wait to verify enrollment and don't leave enough time for the VA to do their work. My school verified my attandance a dismal five weeks before the monthly verification was due by the student. I sure hope they have a plan for the uproar of applicants and certification that they are going to be receiving with the inception of the new Chapter 33 bill on August 1st. Newcomers take heed - you may be paying out of pocket for a lot longer than expected. As always there is nothing you can do except write to your state representatives.
Thanks for the heads-up, TD. Like I tell everyone who has to deal with a top-heavy and recalcitrant governmental bureaucracy, contact your elected officials. Your senators and your congressman/woman have a full-time staffer who deals with nothing but veterans' issues. We are a huge voting bloc and unlike a lot of our peers, we actually DO vote. The last thing a politician wants is a pissed off veteran on his/her ass...
Post a Comment