Harvard Professor: VA Can Expect 800,000 Iraq and Afghanistan War Patients

Harvard Professor Bilmes: VA Can Expect 800,000 Iraq and Afghanistan War Patients and Disability Claims

Statement of Linda J. Bilmes
Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
February 13, 2008

US House of Representatives Veterans Affairs Committee
Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs

Thank you for inviting me to testify before this committee today. I am Professor Linda Bilmes, lecturer in public policy, at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. This year I have given testimony regarding veterans issues on three previous occasions: on October 24, 2007 (before the House Committee on the Budget); on May 23, 2007, before the House Veterans Affairs Committee Claims Roundtable; and on March 13th, 2007 before this subcommittee. I would like to enter copies of all three of these previous statements into the record.

Today I will discuss some of my recent research and resulting recommendations on how to improve the disability claim process. The purpose of these recommendations is to: (a) reduce the backlog of pending disability claims; (b) process new claims more quickly; and (c) to reduce the rate of error and inconsistency among claims.

I will very quickly review the context of this discussion, which I am sure is familiar to members of this subcommittee.

First, the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) currently has a backlog of 400,000 pending claims and another 200,000 claims that are somewhere in the adjudication process. This backlog has nearly doubled since the 2001.

Second, VBA expects to receive an additional 800,000 to 1 million new claims during the next year. To date, 230,000 veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts have filed claims, but the majority of claims for that conflict have yet to be submitted. My own projections, based on estimates from the first Gulf War, predict that a total of 791,000 veterans from the Iraq/Afghan wars will eventually seek disability benefits. However, many veterans’ organizations have suggested that my estimates are too conservative, considering the length of deployment and the number of 2nd and 3rd deployments into this theatre. It may well be that the number of eventual claims is far higher.
go here for the rest
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/9381

Hmm, and I didn't even go to college!