Key numbers: “This year 6m veterans—or a third of the total—qualified for payments, with an average monthly benefit of $2,200.”
Estimated average monthly cost of living, USA, Single person: $3,360src
Difference between those values: $1,160 (not including medical expenses)
[From a 2019-2021 study,] 12.8% of veterans aged 25–64 had problems paying medical bills, 8.4% had forgone medical care, and 38.4% were somewhat or very worried about being able to pay their medical bills if they got sick or had an accident. CDC
Presumptive disability benefits are not some kind of catch-all, where every vet with type-2 diabetes gets disability. The benefits are subject to limitations, the most significant of which seems to be that chronic illnesses need to be diagnosed within a year after release. Click to read more from the VA
As of 11 March 2024 the US Department of Defense fiscal year 2025 (FY2025) budget request was $849.8 billion. Wikipedia
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is requesting a total of $369.3 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2025, a 9.8 percent increase above FY 2024 estimated levels. VA.gov
Israel has been the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since its founding, receiving about $310 billion (adjusted for inflation) in total economic and military assistance. CFR
Since the start of Israel’s war with Hamas on October 7, 2023, the United States has enacted legislation providing at least $12.5 billion in direct military aid to Israel, which includes $3.8 billion from a bill in March 2024 (in line with the current MOU) and $8.7 billion from a supplemental appropriations act in April 2024. Other analysts—Linda J. Bilmes, William D. Hartung, and Stephen Semler, from Brown University—have reported [PDF] that Israel received $17.9 billion in U.S. military aid during this period, a figure that additionally accounts for the cost to the U.S. Defense Department of replenishing the stock of weapons provided to Israel. CFR
You are missing the service connected requirement. Not all diabetes or sleep apnea is covered.
A service-connected condition is an injury or disease that was caused by or worsened by a veteran’s active military service.
That’s literally exactly not the case and kind of the problem. Sorry, I assumed othets read the article. From the Economist article, emphasis mine:
Why has this happened? From 2001 the department began to broaden its list of presumptive conditions—where officials automatically assume the problem is service-related—to include ailments such as type-2 diabetes, allowing any veteran with the disease to qualify for compensation.
Thanks for bringing this confusion to attention, I have added the following fact check to the body text of the post:
Presumptive disability benefits are not some kind of catch-all, where every vet with type-2 diabetes gets disability. The benefits are subject to limitations, the most significant of which seems to be that chronic illnesses need to be diagnosed within a year after release. Click to read more from the VA
Note: If you have a condition listed in Title 38, Code of Federal Regulation, 3.309(a), you won’t need to show the problem started during—or got worse because of—your military service. This is because we automatically assume (or “presume”) that certain conditions that appear within 1 year after discharge are caused by your service. We call these presumptive conditions.
Read Title 38, Code of Federal Regulation, 3.309(a) for a complete list of covered illnesses
I’d also note that here’s some of the suggestions google noted while I was looking for the one year diagnosis:
Like, absolutely , there is a huge obligation to veterans and too many have been screwed over the years. But can we also admit that there is definitely some room for abuse or at the very least, for the system to not function quite as intended?
This is such a weird and new holy-conservative-crusade against Veterans. It’s been slowly picking up steam the past couple of weeks so I imagine this is being blasted across conservative media atm and on things like tiktok. I wonder if this is a strategy to stranglehold the military’s funding unless they play ball with Trumps administration, only reason I can think that they want to turn on the troops now.
You do know this is just another in a long line of conservative hit jobs. Latest was election interference (no actual statistical interference found), then there was “Drug users on government assistance” (drug testing was extremely more expensive than the funding-support on the low number of recipients who actually tested positive), and now it’s veterans getting extra benefits?!?
I would definitely admit that no program is perfect, that’s not going to happen. Now are we basing the veteran benefits off of actual data that was researched and presented or is this just click-bait anecdotal evidence that a few individuals are presenting? There is currently an estimated 18 million US veterans, how many would statistically need to be scamming for their to be a financial incentive to make the process harder and move expensive for the individual and government?
That’s literally exactly not the case and kind of the problem. Sorry, I assumed othets read the article. From the Economist article, emphasis mine:
Thanks for bringing this confusion to attention, I have added the following fact check to the body text of the post:
Presumptive disability benefits are not some kind of catch-all, where every vet with type-2 diabetes gets disability. The benefits are subject to limitations, the most significant of which seems to be that chronic illnesses need to be diagnosed within a year after release. Click to read more from the VA
Just copying this from another response but:
From VA.gov:
I’d also note that here’s some of the suggestions google noted while I was looking for the one year diagnosis:
Like, absolutely , there is a huge obligation to veterans and too many have been screwed over the years. But can we also admit that there is definitely some room for abuse or at the very least, for the system to not function quite as intended?
This is such a weird and new holy-conservative-crusade against Veterans. It’s been slowly picking up steam the past couple of weeks so I imagine this is being blasted across conservative media atm and on things like tiktok. I wonder if this is a strategy to stranglehold the military’s funding unless they play ball with Trumps administration, only reason I can think that they want to turn on the troops now.
You do know this is just another in a long line of conservative hit jobs. Latest was election interference (no actual statistical interference found), then there was “Drug users on government assistance” (drug testing was extremely more expensive than the funding-support on the low number of recipients who actually tested positive), and now it’s veterans getting extra benefits?!?
I would definitely admit that no program is perfect, that’s not going to happen. Now are we basing the veteran benefits off of actual data that was researched and presented or is this just click-bait anecdotal evidence that a few individuals are presenting? There is currently an estimated 18 million US veterans, how many would statistically need to be scamming for their to be a financial incentive to make the process harder and move expensive for the individual and government?