Robert Saucedo sits in a straight-backed chair with a photo of himself in 1964 in uniform and with a pistol in the pistol box. Also on his lap is a form showing his evidence of service and a certificate stating that he fought in the Vietnam War. which he immortalized in the e-book and film, We Were Soldiers Once. . . and Young.
The nervous 81-year-old veteran, dressed in an olive-green shirt, traveled 120 miles from central Texas to the city of Giddings to sign up for another 210 people at Audie L Veterans Hospital. Murphy Memorial on Dec. 14 signing up for physical care, claims or poison exposure screenings.
Saucedo is one of approximately 3. 5 million veterans in the U. S. U. S. citizens who are now eligible for physical or new care after Congress passed the Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act in August 2022.
The law is one of the largest comprehensive expansions of veterans’ care benefits in nearly 30 years. Veterans have filed more than 213,000 PACT claims since President Joe Biden signed the law into law on Aug. 10.
The Veterans Benefits Administration began processing terminally ill veterans programs in December and began reviewing all PACT claims on Jan. 1.
Hospitals and clinics in the domain are now preparing for the influx: U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials are now preparing for the influx. U. S. officials said it’s too early to say how many other people in the San Antonio domain would apply, but they estimate there are thousands of veterans and survivors who are eligible for new benefits and fitness care.
PACT expands access to monetary and fitness benefits for veterans from the Vietnam era to the post-September 11 era. Most importantly, the law adds more than 20 new conditions, such as cancers, chronic respiratory disorders and high blood pressure, that the VA will presume was caused by exposure to Agent Orange, combustion fires, and poisonous ingredients like air pollutants and chemicals. Essentially, the duty to link fitness disorders resulting from exposure to military service of toxins shifted from the veteran to the government.
Mari, who asked that her last call not be disclosed, first deployed to Iraq in 2005 and also attended PACT’s Open Day, one of 90 held across the country, to verify the complaint she filed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. While serving, he said he lived and worked by a chimney the length of a football box that spewed smoke day and night. respiratory disorders five years ago.
“I think my lungs are affected by the toxins I’ve been exposed to,” said the 38-year-old San Antonio native, who has toured Iraq for two years. “Now it’s hard to breathe. I feel tightness in my chest with something like smoke, sprays, or perfumes. I feel like I’m suffocating all the time. “
Tim Jensen, lead strategy officer at San Antonio-based apparel company Grunt Style, lobbied Congress along with veterans’ service organizations like VFW to pass the PACT Act.
“The things we’re exposed to there were not part of the deal. I never thought I deserved to sit on the steps of my own government defending and protesting the fundamental dignity in physical care we deserve,” the Marine Corps veteran said. Especially after we leave and fight for our rights and the things we need to do in this country. “
San Antonio-New Braunfels is one of the fastest-growing giant metropolitan spaces in the country, and the veterans’ fitness care formula is immune to the pains associated with immediate growth.
More than 110,000 veterans are enrolled in South Texas VA’s physical care system, which is temporarily one of the largest in the country. Patients accounted for more than 1. 8 million visits to Audie L. Murphy, Kerrville and Northwest centers and 14 outpatient clinics in and around San Antonio in 2019.
“We have a higher percentage of veterans eligible for dental care through San Antonio,” said Jason Cave, interim director of the South Texas Veterans Health Care System Medical Center. we will most likely have a higher percentage of other PACT eligible people here compared to national averages. “
After Saucedo returned from Vietnam and left the military, he attempted to earn a disability score and fitness benefits from VA, but was unsuccessful until 2004. He hopes it will now be less difficult to file a claim for exposure to Agent Orange. At Audie L Murphy Hospital in December, a former soldier and airman who already had a 100 percent disability rate filed claims for other physical disorders that would possibly be similar to those on his service.
If the VA determines that the fitness situations claimed by veterans are similar to their service, your surviving wife or child is more likely to be eligible for monthly tax-free dependency and compensation bills.
Prior to the Jan. 1 PACT claims changes, veterans’ benefits management was already operating at record levels. Veterans submitted 19% more programs in 2022 than the year before, and VA processes up to 7900 programs a day, according to VA Secretary Denis McDonough. Locally, 2,740 new veterans signed up for the South Texas formula in the 3 months prior to PACT’s approval.
The Veterans Health Administration hired a record 48,500 clinical and administrative employees in fiscal year 2022. VA officials said they needed to rent 52,000 workers a year for five years, adding 45,000 nurses for the next 3 years, to keep up with the further expansion of veterans. Fitness benefits in agency history. The VA introduced a national hiring crusade in mid-November and has already rented or made donations to more than 12,800 new workers, nearly double the VA goal.
In Antonio, VA’s fitness formula added 528 providers and staff in fiscal year 2022, and between 800 and 1,000 more people are being recruited at any given time, according to Cave.
“We rented like crazy,” Cave said. We are in an expansion mode, expansion, expansion because of our biological expansion, but also because of eligibility here. If we don’t bring in a new PACT team or care team every 90 days, the access numbers will start to suffer.
Since Nov. 8, all veterans who enroll in VA physical care have been screened for poison exposure. Veterans whose registered programs in the past have been denied will have to file an additional application to be reconsidered, according to VA’s PACT FAQ site.
“It’s critical that veterans, their families and survivors apply today for benefits they’ve earned,” said Bobbi Gruner, VA deputy director of regional public affairs in Dallas.
The VA says it prioritizes PACT Act claims filed by terminally ill veterans and those with cancers similar to poisonous exposure, other homeless people, others over 85 or experiencing financial hardship, and Medal of Honor and Purple Heart recipients.