Agent Orange Benefits For Broader Categories of Illnesses

In the past year, the Department of Veterans Affairs expanded the list of "presumptive illnesses" for which Vietnam veterans could receive benefits as a result of Agent Orange exposure beyond what were once considered eligible.  These include veterans who served from January 9, 1962 through May 7, 1975 in Vietnam or its inland waterwasy, along the demilitarized zone in Korea  between April 1, 1968 and August 31, 1971, or at miltary bases where herbicides were tested or stored in states or overseas.   These illnesses include schemic heart disease, Parkinson's disease, hairy cell leukemia or other chronic B-cell leukemias.  Here's the final VA ruling that came out in February, 2011 on wartime herbicide exposure.  Survivors of veterans who served in conditions that exposed them to Agent Orange--and who died of one of the presumptive illnesses--may be eligible for benefits, too.

Not only that, but children of exposed veterans who have certain birth defects like spina bifida may be eligible for benefits as well, such as compensation, health care and vocational training if they were conceived after wartime exposure. 

Check out the new, expanded rulings.  If you have been denied claims in the past, but qualify under the new ruling, you may be eligble for benefits.