Printer Friendly Page
VETERANS' FAMILIES TAKE THEIR CASES TO HOUSE
PANEL -- She knows her husband is going to die
within months from cancer linked to his
exposure
to Agent Orange when he was in Vietnam.
Story here...
http://www.theledger.com/apps/
pbcs.dll/article?AID=/2007042
5/NEWS/704250488/1039
Story below:
---------------
HARDSHIP OVER VETERANS' BENEFITS
Families Take Case to House Panel
By Cory Reiss
Ledger Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Amy Clark of Bartow knows her husband is going to die
within months from cancer linked to his exposure to Agent Orange when he
was in Vietnam.
Making matters worse, she told a House subcommittee on Tuesday, was the
cold and bureaucratic maze she and her husband, Russell, have attempted
to navigate for medical care and disability benefits at the Department
of Veterans Affairs since his diagnosis on their wedding anniversary in
January.
She said Russell Clark, 59, may very well die before a disability claim
for post traumatic stress disorder has been settled more than 20 years
after first being filed.
"Yes, the VA offers you a book of benefits that you may be entitled to,"
Clark told the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial
Affairs. "But just try and get those benefits. It's ridiculous … The
paperwork is overwhelming."
The panel heard from Clark, 47, and three other families of military
veterans who told tear-jerking stories of financial stress and
frustration with systems for collecting benefits owed survivors, spouses
and children.
Two witnesses are caring for their grandchildren after their daughters
were killed in Iraq, a war that has put unprecedented numbers of female
troops in harm's way.
One Iowa grandmother, Susan Jaenke, explained that the military's
$100,000 death benefit intended for 9-year-old Kayla is locked up in a
trust fund under federal rules, while Jaenke struggles financially to
care for the child. Jaenke lost two cars, fell behind on house payments,
and at times couldn't afford groceries.
Matthew Heavrin and his wife, of California, are caring for their
2-year-old grandson. A man their daughter married before deployment who
is not the child's father apparently received the $100,000 death
gratuity and $400,000 in life insurance but hasn't offered a penny to
support his wife's child, Heavrin said.
"Please, please help us," Jaenke told the subcommittee as Kayla sat
beside her. "My granddaughter doesn't need to do without."
At one point, Clark rose and walked around the witness table to offer a
tissue to a congressional staff member who had been reduced to tears.
Members of the subcommittee vowed to make changes in the disbursement of
death benefits from the Pentagon and to streamline procedures for
obtaining disability benefits and health care from the VA.
"On behalf of your government, I want to apologize to you," said Rep.
John Hall of New York, the Democratic chairman of the panel, whose
sentiment was echoed by other members on both sides of the aisle.
The obstacles described are enduring features of the dual-track systems
that veterans, spouses and survivors have navigated for many years. The
Department of Defense handles some benefits and aspects of disability
and health care before the VA takes the cases and new procedures begin.
Some military benefits are subtracted from veterans' benefits, further
angering military survivors.
The Gold Star Wives of America, which represents widows of service
members, advocates the creation of a joint office for survivors that
would assist family members through the defense and veterans systems.
Subcommittee members said they liked that idea.
Congress is paying especially close attention to such concerns since the
scandal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center revealed poor treatment of
wounded veterans and led to broader scrutiny of inequities and delays in
the VA system that allocates disability benefits.
The complaints came as a task force involving nine agencies and
executive offices, created by President Bush in response to uproar over
the Walter Reed scandal, unveiled 25 recommendations for improving
delivery of benefits for veterans. Some members of Congress said the
report would help.
The VA's backlog of disability claims and the sometimes decades-long
battles over decisions also have attracted more attention. Clark said
her husband filed a claim for post-traumatic stress disorder in the late
1980s and has been fighting for it ever since.
Asked outside the hearing whether she was encouraged by the pledges of
help from lawmakers on the subcommittee, Clark nodded toward the large
wooden doors and said dryly: "That's talk."
She said she would only be satisfied by the VA's handing her dying
husband a check for past disability benefits that so far have been
denied.
Clark received help from the office of her congressman, Bartow
Republican Rep. Adam Putnam, in obtaining disability status and other
benefits related to her husband's service-connected cancer. Still, she
said, "he's not getting what he deserves."
"He gave for my country," she said of her husband. "Now it's time for
this country to give him what he deserves."
---------------
Larry Scott --
