Obama addresses low disability payouts

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Obama, vets talk
Area veterans meet with U.S. Senator to address low disability payouts

By DANIEL PIKE
STAFF WRITER

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama said Saturday he would be the "squeaky wheel" in Washington for Illinois veterans who are receiving low disability payouts from the Department of Veterans's Affairs.
The freshman senator met with hundreds of Springfield-area veterans at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 755, 2211 Old Jacksonville Road, in a town hall discussion about the shortcoming in disability benefits.

"I may have very strong views about what needs to happen with these veterans, but ultimately if the administration doesn't properly fund services, if regional offices are being scaled back instead of expanded, it's going to be difficult," Obama told reporters afterward.

The Illinois Democrat, who sits on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, held a similar meeting Friday in Evergreen Park, a southern Chicago suburb.

Obama said he wanted to talk to Illinois veterans before Monday's confirmation hearing for Jim Nicholson, the U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican who is President Bush's nominee to replace outgoing Veterans' Affairs Secretary Anthony J. Principi.

A recent Chicago Sun-Times investigation found that Illinois ranks 50th out of 52 states and territories in payouts to disabled veterans. The state's sick and wounded annually receive nearly $5,000 less than veterans in Puerto Rico, which ranks No. 1. The low payouts apparently stretch back many decades.

That, understandably, is an emotion-laced issue.

For veterans treating injuries and illnesses that resulted from combat, it's about money. For healthy veterans, it's about respect for their fellow soldiers.

And, according to one Springfield veteran, emotions are amplified by poor communication between veterans and the VA bureaucracy.

"Veterans have to have their act together before they even attempt to approach the VA if they're going to file a claim," said Vietnam veteran Marc Patterson, who attended the meeting. "Unfortunately, that places a lot of responsibility on the veteran, and most veterans aren't prepared at that level to be able to even competently deal with the VA."
Saturday's discussion veered from general questions about VA services to requests for help with individual claims.

One man spoke about developing prostate cancer after serving near H-bomb tests in the South Pacific. His claims have been rejected three times in the past decade, and "now they want to know how much radiation I got," he said. Twelve of the 13 men he served with are living with or have died from cancer.

Another man developed tonsil cancer - he believes it came from exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam - but was asked by the VA to provide proof that he actually served in the war.

"When you've served in the military, the burden shouldn't be on you to gather those records," Obama said in response. "The government already has those somewhere."

Patterson, a self-described "veterans' advocate" who counsels veterans on how to deal with the VA, agreed with Obama's position.

"Most veterans never retain in their own personal files the necessary documentation it takes to deal with the VA bureaucracy," he said. "The veteran himself or herself makes it very easy for the VA to deny a claim, simply because the veteran did not have his military ducks in a row."
Lee Brown, a Springfield resident and Vietnam veteran, recently was awarded 30 percent disability pay with help from Patterson, who is on full disability.

Both men place most of the blame for the low payouts on the VA's regional office in Chicago. It's a theory Obama seems to have latched onto as well.

Obama said the funds used to pay disability benefits come from the federal government, so ideally claims should be considered to be under one system.

But the VA is divided into regions. Obama noted that the bottom two states in disability payouts are Michigan and Ohio, geographic neighbors of Illinois.

"There seems to be a long tradition in the Midwest of rating specialists being stingier than their counterparts in other parts of the country," he said. "We need consistent evaluations across the board."

The situation is serious not only for veterans, but also for those serving in Iraq, Obama said.

"Because of improved medical care that we have in the armed forces now, we have a lot more veterans who survive lethal attacks than we did in the past," he said. "But that also means that we're going to have more disabled veterans coming home.

"What we have to make sure of is that we are giving them the kind of support and the kinds of resources they need to put their lives back together again."

Earlier Saturday, Obama spoke to the legislative convention of Council 31 of the American Federation of State, City and Municipal Employees at the Prairie Capital Convention Center.

In his brief remarks, Obama thanked the labor union for its political backing and lobbed a few attacks at the president for failing to address enough domestic issues in last week's inauguration speech.


Daniel Pike can be reached at 788-1532 or daniel.pike@sj-r.com.