Feds OKs benefits for veterans with ALS

From The New York Times Sept. 23:

The federal government will provide disability pay, lifetime health care and death benefits for all veterans with Lou Gehrig’s disease, the Department of Veterans Affairs said Sept. 23, saying the disease was linked to military service.

All veterans with the illness will be eligible, regardless of when or where they served. The 10-year cost for death and disability benefits is projected at $505,839,000, said Tom Pamperin, the deputy director of the compensation and pension service at the Veterans Affairs Department. That figure does not include health care costs.

The decision is based on studies suggesting that veterans are more likely to develop the disease, an often fatal nerve disorder, which is also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or A.L.S.

The cause of the disease is unknown, and it is not common, affecting 20,000 to 30,000 people in the United States. It destroys nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, and the average survival is only three to five years.

Dr. Jinsy Andrews, a neurologist at the center for the disease at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital, said that several studies had linked A.L.S. to military service, though none could explain why.

“There are many theories of why veterans may be having an increased risk of A.L.S., which include psychological or physical stress, or even vaccinations or exposures to electromagnetic fields, or to toxic agents that have been used in the gulf war,” Dr. Andrews said. “And that may lead to us discover possible associations and mechanisms involved in the disease that have been unknown for so long.”

Even though the connection is not certain, the government decided to compensate veterans because the disease is so severe and so rapidly progressive that there is simply no time to sort out individual claims.

The secretary of veterans affairs “felt the right thing to do was to give veterans the benefit of the doubt, particularly since this disease is so debilitating,” Mr. Pamperin said.

The government expects 416 new cases among veterans in 2009, and a total of about 700 a year qualifying for the benefits. In some cases their survivors will quality for death benefits. The death and disability benefits alone are expected to cost about $23 million in 2009.