“The word deadline implies that it’s done...,” Farmer told the Journal-News. “All of the material that has been kind of pushed in billboards and TV ads is the deadline. It’s not really a deadline, the sooner you file the better and that’s always the case, but you can still file, it’s not too late, we’re going to be dealing with the PACT Act for the next 50 years.”
The “deadline” was originally Aug. 9 — a year from when the federal government enacted the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act — to receive a year’s worth of retroactive benefits. It was extended to Aug. 14 because of a Department of Veteran’s Affairs computer glitch.
The PACT Act expands VA health care and benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxins. The law adds more than 20 conditions related to exposures, including high blood pressure, now presumed to be related to military service.
Before the act, veterans faced higher hurdles in order to demonstrate past toxic exposure. Farmer said even before the PACT Act became law some retroactive benefits were already available.
“The basics of it is if the veteran had the diagnosis the law already allows the VA to go back one year prior,” Farmer said. “So the fact that this deadline has passed, we’re still filing PACT Act claims, those presumptions are still going to exist for the Middle East, the ones they added for Agent Orange, the new countries they added, are still valid. The only thing that changes, as does any veteran’s claim, is the date of claim and when the possible award can go back to.”
The legislation is named after Sgt. 1st Class Heath Robinson, a Central Ohio veteran who passed away in 2020 at age 39 from lung cancer after exposure to burn pits during a one-year deployment in Iraq in 2006.
The PACT Act is the result of a years-long fight by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, veterans and advocates to secure access to Department of Veterans Affairs health care and disability benefits for veterans who were exposed to toxins.
Brown has been traveling to all 88 counties discussing the PACT Act and was here in the spring.
“This law is the most comprehensive expansion of benefits for veterans who faced toxic exposure in our country’s history,” Brown said. “We’re working to get the word out to veterans across Ohio. If you were exposed to toxins while serving our country, you deserve the benefits you earned. Period. No exceptions.”
There are Veterans Service Commissions in every county and one of their primary jobs is to help veterans navigate the murky waters and VA red tape to claim their well earned benefits. Farmer said business has been brisk since the inception of the PACT Act.
The board tracks contacts they have with veterans via email, phone and walk-ins. They did not segregate numbers for the PACT Act, but the total number of communications jumped 2,835 between August 2021 through last July and when the Act passed Aug. 10, 2022 to July 31.
Vet Board Commissioner Chuck Weber is a retired Army captain and fought in Vietnam. He suffers from four or five of the conditions that arose from Agent Orange exposure — a chemical herbicide and defoliant — and those have been covered conditions.
The PACT Act doesn’t apply to him personally but will help the veterans he has sworn to help.
“I think it’s nothing but it’s about time, it’s due, it’s overdue and the VA has done the right thing,” Weber said. “But I’m always a little sad for the people that went before us and were not able to claim what was rightfully theirs.”
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