Feb. 9 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on Friday proposed changes that will expand veteran access to healthcare benefits for service members exposed to Agent Orange while serving overseas.
The proposed Biden administration rule change, if it becomes finalized, will expand the locations and time frame for which the VA will assume that a veteran was exposed to the toxic chemical Agent Orange and other related herbicides.
More specifically, it would add further locations in the United States, Canada and India to the existing presumptive locations that one could have been exposed to Agent Orange in addition to Vietnam, Cambodia and other surrounding countries or territories.
A given “presumption of exposure” — which will lower the burden of proof needed in order to get benefits — would mean that the VA will “automatically assume that veterans who served in certain locations were exposed to certain toxins,” according to the department.
It would codify provisions in the PACT Act, the Blue Water Navy Act of 2019 and the National Defense Authorization Act for 2021.
The VA said they are delivering more care and benefits to more military veterans “than ever before in U.S. history.” U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough called the proposed move “another step in the right direction.”
“This proposed change would make it easier for veterans exposed to herbicides who served outside Vietnam to access the benefits they so rightly deserve,” McDonough said in a VA statement.
Herbicides, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, are “chemicals used to manipulate or control undesirable vegetation.” Agent Orange was a powerful and toxic herbicide used abundantly during the Vietnam War by the U.S. government to eliminate forests and farm crops.