With US encouragement, VA disability claims rise sharply [View all]

http://hamptonroads.com/2014/07/us-encouragement-va-disability-claims-rise-sharply-0

With US encouragement, VA disability claims rise sharply
By Alan Zarembo, Los Angeles Times

© July 18, 2014

LOS ANGELES

As Malvin Espinosa prepared to retire from the Army in 2011, a Veterans Affairs counselor urged him to apply for disability pay.
List all your medical problems, the counselor said.

Espinosa, a mechanic at Fort Lee in Virginia, had never considered himself disabled. But he did have ringing in his ears, sleep problems and aching joints. He also had bad memories of unloading a dead soldier from a helicopter in Afghanistan.

“Put it all down,” he recalled the counselor saying.

Espinosa did, and as a result, he is getting a monthly disability check of $1,792, tax free, most likely for the rest of his life. The VA deems him 80 percent disabled due to sleep apnea, mild post-traumatic stress disorder, tinnitus and migraines.

--

I'll verify that first paragraph. Before you go to the VA WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING THAT'S MEDICALLY BOTHERING YOU.

Before I went to the VA last year, I listed everything from hearing loss to bad eyesight to a bad back to .....

My first VA appointment was in February of this year. So far I have a 10% disability from tinnitus and I'm starting an appeal to get some friggin hearing aides.