Professor's Theory is Harmful to Veterans

Professor: Disability checks harmful to veterans
Pensacola News Journal
Marketta Davis
May 15, 2015

Lt. Col. Daniel M. Gade, an active duty Army officer and
Iraq War amputee describes his research and perspectives
on veterans' care to the Tiger Bay Club at New World Landing
Friday afternoon.
(Photo: Tony Giberson)

A West Point professor and Iraq War vet wants the government to limit veteran disability benefits in favor of incentives to work. Lt. Col. Daniel M. Gade, himself an amputee, shared his vision with Pensacola residents during the Panhandle Tiger Bay Club monthly meeting Friday.

"Too many veterans become financially dependent on monthly disability checks, choose not to find jobs, and lose their sense of identity and self-worth that can come from work," Gade said.

At the core of Gade's theory is the belief that disability checks designed to help disabled vets might actually be harmful to them by possibly causing a sense of dependability. Every veteran who leaves the military is required to be exposed to the programs offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs, but due to a flawed a system, veterans are over-claiming, he said.

"As our number of veterans in America decline, our number of disabled veterans climb," Gade said. "Due to this idea of mandatory exposure."

According to Gade, the system says that every change in a veteran's health from entry to discharge is considered to be service connected.

This means the multitude of deteriorating physical capacities a veteran experiences from 18 to 38 years old after serving a full 20-year career, is the military's fault, Gade said, and the American government's responsibility.
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Where do I start on this one? 

With the truth that veterans able to work usually make a lot more than the VA compensation checks provide topped off with the simple fact of how long it takes to have a claim approved. Next the other simple fact that almost half of the veterans with PTSD do not file claims at all. Then again when you consider this.

There are 21.8 million veterans of the U.S. armed forces as of 2014, according the Census Bureau, approximately 10 percent of whom are women. To put that in context there are 319.2 million Americans, according to the bureau. Nov 10, 2014

This is from the VA
VA Health Care Utilization by Recent Veterans Findings
Approximately 60 percent (1,126,173) of all separated OEF/OIF/OND Veterans have used VA health care since October 1, 2001.

Between October 1, 2013 and September 30, 2014, a total of 681,244 of these Veterans accessed VA health care.

The frequency and percent of the three most common diagnoses were: musculoskeletal ailments (687,723 or 61.1 percent); symptoms, signs, and ill-defined conditions (conditions that do not have an immediately obvious cause or isolated laboratory test abnormalities) (641,973 or 57.0 percent); and mental disorders (640,537 or 56.9 percent). A Veteran can have more than one diagnosis.

In 2013, about 3.5 million of the nation’s 22 million veterans received disability compensation benefits

Using the VA system after service is something this country always did and has nothing to do with compensation.  It used to be a couple of years of free medical care but was extended up to 5 years after service.

As you can see, the numbers show that a small percentage of veterans are in the system but the most shocking thing of all is that we can't even manage to take care of the veterans disabled for serving the country. If the "theory" came close to the truth, then it would have been worth reporting on.