WEBVTT 00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:09.019 All across America and around the world, this 00:00:09.019 --> 00:00:16.000 is Veterans Radio. This is Veterans Radio. Welcome 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:20.940 to Veterans Radio. I am Jim Fossone. I'm the 00:00:20.940 --> 00:00:23.679 officer of the deck today. We've got some great 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:26.120 programs for you. We always want to remind you, 00:00:26.140 --> 00:00:29.179 you can find more about Veterans Radio at its 00:00:29.179 --> 00:00:33.000 Facebook site or at the web, veteransradio .org, 00:00:33.100 --> 00:00:35.799 where we're on the web 24 -7. You can find a 00:00:35.799 --> 00:00:38.979 lot of our podcasts there as well. We post new 00:00:38.979 --> 00:00:43.060 ones every Tuesday, so you can get a new story, 00:00:43.259 --> 00:00:46.060 a new interview, something you didn't know before 00:00:46.060 --> 00:00:50.049 by going to veteransradio .org. 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We want to welcome to Veterans Radio today, 00:01:36.810 --> 00:01:39.250 Andrew Patrick George Everett, who I'm going 00:01:39.250 --> 00:01:42.930 to call Everett because he also goes by APDG. 00:01:43.230 --> 00:01:45.250 That's why Everett's easier. Everett, welcome 00:01:45.250 --> 00:01:47.769 to Veterans Radio. It's a pleasure to meet you, 00:01:47.769 --> 00:01:53.370 Mr. Jim. Well, I'll tell you what. An opinion 00:01:53.370 --> 00:01:56.030 piece that you wrote caught my attention. The 00:01:56.030 --> 00:01:58.310 opinion piece is titled, The VA's Disability 00:01:58.310 --> 00:02:00.969 Evaluation of Failing Veterans. But before we 00:02:00.969 --> 00:02:03.430 get into the opinion piece, we should explain 00:02:03.430 --> 00:02:05.989 to our veteran radio listeners that you served 00:02:05.989 --> 00:02:12.740 in the Air Force from 1999 to 2002. You told 00:02:12.740 --> 00:02:16.680 me you had officially, you were a weather technician. 00:02:17.319 --> 00:02:19.319 Unofficially, they dragged you into operational 00:02:19.319 --> 00:02:22.180 planning and you did a lot of support work for 00:02:22.180 --> 00:02:25.199 operational planning. Because as you noted, weather 00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:27.699 affects everything. Do I have that right? Oh, 00:02:27.759 --> 00:02:30.099 no, no, yes, sir. And yeah, no, it was just a 00:02:30.099 --> 00:02:35.759 matter of it was borne out by the fact that I, 00:02:35.759 --> 00:02:41.280 so I'm a reasonably decent writer. I was in high 00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:44.120 school. I ran my high school newspaper my senior 00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:48.060 year. So when I showed up to the weather hub 00:02:48.060 --> 00:02:52.379 and then showed up to the operations floor, they're 00:02:52.379 --> 00:02:55.159 like, oh, you can write. You've already gotten 00:02:55.159 --> 00:02:58.460 a commendation for that. Do we have a job for 00:02:58.460 --> 00:03:01.500 you? Which led me writing the Synoptic Weather 00:03:01.500 --> 00:03:06.000 Bulletin, which then in turn helped lead to doing 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:10.889 contingency operations. oriented things because 00:03:10.889 --> 00:03:15.189 Well, yeah, and you Once you got out of service 00:03:15.189 --> 00:03:19.490 You picked up an undergraduate degree you you've 00:03:19.490 --> 00:03:22.009 studied at Cornell You currently are working 00:03:22.009 --> 00:03:24.129 on your master's in biomedical engineering at 00:03:24.129 --> 00:03:27.889 the University of Vermont and also working on 00:03:27.889 --> 00:03:32.229 some medical coursework at the University of 00:03:32.229 --> 00:03:36.280 Washington, so you're not only right, well, you're 00:03:36.280 --> 00:03:39.960 sort of an analytical guy as an engineer. That's 00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:43.780 what I'd sort of expect. So with an emphasis, 00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:46.860 I think you feel that your emphasis is in the 00:03:46.860 --> 00:03:50.000 medical field. Is that right? I mean, now it's 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:52.520 certainly it's been a matter of transition. Like, 00:03:52.680 --> 00:03:56.039 obviously, when I was younger, actually, when 00:03:56.039 --> 00:03:59.199 I got medical out of the service, my goal was 00:03:59.199 --> 00:04:01.780 to go into science and tech policy. And in order 00:04:01.780 --> 00:04:04.870 to do that, My goal was to go to grad school 00:04:04.870 --> 00:04:07.349 in engineering, but I ended up doing a more liberal 00:04:07.349 --> 00:04:12.210 artsy oriented undergrad because honestly engineer 00:04:12.210 --> 00:04:14.849 engineering undergrad, especially at the University 00:04:14.849 --> 00:04:17.370 of Washington Yeah, that's that's that's a no 00:04:17.370 --> 00:04:19.509 what that I mean engineering undergrad is hard 00:04:19.509 --> 00:04:21.310 anyway But in the quarter school at the University 00:04:21.310 --> 00:04:24.629 of Washington, it just becomes impossible so 00:04:24.629 --> 00:04:32.649 I So I did I did a degree in econ mostly for 00:04:32.649 --> 00:04:35.829 the orientation towards the, for the government 00:04:35.829 --> 00:04:38.470 sector things like public finance, taxation, 00:04:39.449 --> 00:04:42.389 policy, that sort of thing. And then my real, 00:04:42.550 --> 00:04:46.110 my quote unquote real degree in undergrad was 00:04:46.110 --> 00:04:49.810 effective, a math degree focusing on applied 00:04:49.810 --> 00:04:53.750 math. And I skipped over the fact that you've 00:04:53.750 --> 00:04:58.310 done consulting work with big national firms 00:04:58.310 --> 00:05:00.930 in the DC area. We're not talking about any of 00:05:00.930 --> 00:05:02.730 that today. That doesn't really matter to us. 00:05:04.129 --> 00:05:07.810 But what I'm trying to get established is that 00:05:07.810 --> 00:05:10.550 you've had real -world experience with the VA 00:05:10.550 --> 00:05:13.569 disability system, and you've had sort of an 00:05:13.569 --> 00:05:18.850 opportunity from a higher level policy, hey, 00:05:19.350 --> 00:05:21.230 engineering -wise, there's a better way to do 00:05:21.230 --> 00:05:24.050 this, biomedical approach. That kind of is... 00:05:24.060 --> 00:05:28.220 how this opinion piece came about. So why did 00:05:28.220 --> 00:05:30.920 you write it? Who did you write it for? Right. 00:05:31.560 --> 00:05:37.939 So let's roll back to this summer. So the one 00:05:37.939 --> 00:05:43.079 big, beautiful bill passed, and it led to changes 00:05:43.079 --> 00:05:45.720 in federal student loan policy, which led to 00:05:45.720 --> 00:05:48.180 the first op -ed that I wrote for The Hill, which 00:05:48.180 --> 00:05:51.959 published late August. in particular how changes 00:05:51.959 --> 00:05:57.600 in the One Big Beautiful bill led to impositions 00:05:57.600 --> 00:06:00.439 on veterans and certainly prior enlisted veterans 00:06:00.439 --> 00:06:05.060 like myself from being able to finance going 00:06:05.060 --> 00:06:09.279 to med school or law school without just with 00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:11.480 that with the way the student loan program has 00:06:11.480 --> 00:06:18.000 been severely cut. Now, having done that and 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:20.889 then I've got a op -ed published in the Seattle 00:06:20.889 --> 00:06:27.509 Times for DUI enforcement in September when the 00:06:27.509 --> 00:06:29.850 piece that dropped in the Washington Post in 00:06:29.850 --> 00:06:33.269 early October, the long -form expose that was 00:06:33.269 --> 00:06:40.069 written by Craig Whitlock et al. And that's the 00:06:40.069 --> 00:06:43.089 piece for veteran radio listeners that claimed 00:06:43.089 --> 00:06:48.319 there's all kinds of bureaucracy and fraud in 00:06:48.319 --> 00:06:52.399 the VA disability payment system. Indeed. So 00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:58.839 now, reading that, I was one, annoyed, two, like 00:06:58.839 --> 00:07:01.100 nothing they claimed was technically incorrect, 00:07:01.220 --> 00:07:05.480 but they certainly, the focus was only on individual 00:07:05.480 --> 00:07:08.160 malefactors, that is to say, individual bad boys 00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:13.879 or girls, and didn't look and certainly made 00:07:13.879 --> 00:07:20.680 claims like about why veterans file a supplementary 00:07:20.680 --> 00:07:25.000 and supplemental conditions and things like that, 00:07:25.860 --> 00:07:30.939 not at all evaluating the fact that the reason 00:07:30.939 --> 00:07:34.439 why veterans do the things that they do regarding 00:07:34.439 --> 00:07:36.959 VA claims is because this is how the system is 00:07:36.959 --> 00:07:39.319 designed. Every veteran who has gone through 00:07:39.319 --> 00:07:42.019 this claims process, as I have more than once, 00:07:43.120 --> 00:07:48.089 they are well aware that it is easier to get 00:07:48.089 --> 00:07:55.129 from zero to 90 % than it is to get from 90 to 00:07:55.129 --> 00:07:59.870 100. And the reason for that fundamentally is 00:07:59.870 --> 00:08:04.250 due to what's known as, in mathematical terms, 00:08:04.370 --> 00:08:07.689 is a product formula that the VA uses in order 00:08:07.689 --> 00:08:13.319 to try to prevent because, of course, in The 00:08:13.319 --> 00:08:15.100 logic makes sense from a certain point of view, 00:08:15.139 --> 00:08:18.779 but it doesn't fundamentally. And part of that 00:08:18.779 --> 00:08:21.819 is, and the Washington Post article has been 00:08:21.819 --> 00:08:24.560 beat up by all kinds of people, and I'm more 00:08:24.560 --> 00:08:26.779 than glad to jump on the bandwagon of beating 00:08:26.779 --> 00:08:29.339 it up because it cherry -picked bad actors, as 00:08:29.339 --> 00:08:33.620 you point out. Indeed. And if you have 6 .9 million 00:08:33.620 --> 00:08:37.019 disability beneficiaries, you can find a percentage 00:08:37.019 --> 00:08:39.399 or two who are going to be bad actors, and that's 00:08:39.399 --> 00:08:42.649 all they did. What they didn't do is really focus 00:08:42.649 --> 00:08:46.090 on the system. And that was what I thought was 00:08:46.090 --> 00:08:48.649 interesting about your op -ed articles. You sort 00:08:48.649 --> 00:08:51.909 of said, they're using an old approach here, 00:08:51.950 --> 00:08:54.490 and maybe you ought to rethink the approach, 00:08:55.110 --> 00:08:58.029 not pick on the veterans. So talk to us about 00:08:58.029 --> 00:09:02.110 that aspect. So there are several aspects that 00:09:02.110 --> 00:09:06.710 come into it. The rating system and the percentage 00:09:06.710 --> 00:09:08.789 combinations and the whole thing that the VA 00:09:08.789 --> 00:09:16.210 uses was put out in 1945. It's encoded into the 00:09:16.210 --> 00:09:18.409 CFR, that is the Code of Federal Regulations, 00:09:19.110 --> 00:09:22.450 which in turn is based off of an old actuarial 00:09:22.450 --> 00:09:26.750 model. Actuarial mathematics is, of course, especially 00:09:26.750 --> 00:09:30.269 in applied mathematics that deals towards figuring 00:09:30.269 --> 00:09:34.279 out things like life and health, the lengths 00:09:34.279 --> 00:09:39.679 of things and what have you. So how they built 00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:44.840 that formula is the assumption that all disability 00:09:44.840 --> 00:09:50.919 conditions for veterans were substantively independent, 00:09:51.159 --> 00:09:55.039 which is to say they are not physiologically 00:09:55.039 --> 00:09:59.129 or statistically correlated with any which is 00:09:59.129 --> 00:10:03.429 to say related to anything else. Now, this was 00:10:03.429 --> 00:10:06.710 an approach that the actuarial industry and thus 00:10:06.710 --> 00:10:08.590 insurance companies moved away from starting 00:10:08.590 --> 00:10:14.289 in the 60s and then starting by about the middle 00:10:14.289 --> 00:10:16.429 of the Reagan administration. I think fundamentally 00:10:16.429 --> 00:10:20.230 the entire actuary and insurance industry had 00:10:20.230 --> 00:10:24.110 moved towards a more domain aware, which is to 00:10:24.110 --> 00:10:32.950 say. a combination of disabilities that for like 00:10:32.950 --> 00:10:38.250 assessing percentage disabled, which is, I don't 00:10:38.250 --> 00:10:40.889 like the term, but let's go with it. And that 00:10:40.889 --> 00:10:42.809 right there is unique. I mean, Social Security, 00:10:43.029 --> 00:10:46.230 you're either 100 % or you're zero. VA rates 00:10:46.230 --> 00:10:50.330 individual organs and body parts differently. 00:10:51.479 --> 00:10:55.259 As you say without any correlation between well, 00:10:55.259 --> 00:10:57.720 if I have this I probably are gonna get that 00:10:57.720 --> 00:11:00.860 Which also leads to your you know, you've talked 00:11:00.860 --> 00:11:04.860 about secondary conditions Because if I've got 00:11:04.860 --> 00:11:06.720 a bad hip sooner or later, I'm gonna have a bad 00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:10.360 knee aren't I? Yep, and and so like the vast 00:11:10.360 --> 00:11:13.340 majority of veterans but rather let's rewind 00:11:13.340 --> 00:11:16.740 a second so a lot of veterans especially a lot 00:11:16.740 --> 00:11:20.059 of post 9 -eleven veterans myself included have 00:11:20.429 --> 00:11:24.429 PTSD. I mean, obviously, some it was working 00:11:24.429 --> 00:11:27.210 multiple deployments. For me, it was working. 00:11:27.490 --> 00:11:30.389 It was working in a 24 hour shop at a headquarters. 00:11:31.289 --> 00:11:34.610 Like, I mean, we each have we each have our thing. 00:11:35.990 --> 00:11:40.110 And along with constantly rotating shift work 00:11:40.110 --> 00:11:42.929 or, you know, inconsistent hours and everything 00:11:42.929 --> 00:11:48.269 else, and the various tremata of military service. 00:11:48.879 --> 00:11:52.220 People develop PTSD and or depression people 00:11:52.220 --> 00:11:56.120 develop Chronic pain elements from you know having 00:11:56.120 --> 00:12:00.139 to bear a lot of weight sometimes, you know I 00:12:00.139 --> 00:12:02.679 mean, I wasn't a combat arm soldier, but those 00:12:02.679 --> 00:12:07.460 who were who carry 80 90 pounds on their back 00:12:07.460 --> 00:12:10.700 for days if not weeks at a time There's a reason 00:12:10.700 --> 00:12:13.519 why they're they're back their knees and everything 00:12:13.519 --> 00:12:18.580 goes bad now these conditions tend to correlate, 00:12:19.120 --> 00:12:21.820 like PTSD and chronic pain, the correlation is 00:12:21.820 --> 00:12:25.259 above 50%. PTSD and apnea, the correlation is 00:12:25.259 --> 00:12:28.799 undeniably like for older veterans, for all veterans 00:12:28.799 --> 00:12:32.460 is about 50 % a bit over for younger veterans 00:12:32.460 --> 00:12:35.080 in the post -9, certainly in the post -9 -11 00:12:35.080 --> 00:12:39.019 realm, as well as a bit earlier, the correlation 00:12:39.019 --> 00:12:42.259 is about two thirds of people with PTSD also 00:12:42.259 --> 00:12:47.269 have sleep apnea. And the Washington Post article, 00:12:47.830 --> 00:12:49.409 the first one as well as the second one they 00:12:49.409 --> 00:12:54.750 did, where they were questioning, well, why does 00:12:54.750 --> 00:12:57.549 APMEA pay more than losing a limb or something? 00:12:58.330 --> 00:13:04.470 Well, going back to the way the old formula system 00:13:04.470 --> 00:13:09.429 that the VA uses to compute disabilities, like 00:13:09.429 --> 00:13:12.549 loss of a hand or a foot had a certain impairment. 00:13:13.179 --> 00:13:17.539 loss of the entire arm or a leg had a bigger 00:13:17.539 --> 00:13:21.340 one. But whether or not your foot or your arm 00:13:21.340 --> 00:13:25.360 was impaired really didn't matter that much except 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:29.700 the ability to do certain physical tasks. PTSD, 00:13:30.440 --> 00:13:34.340 apnea, things like chronic pain, those affect 00:13:34.340 --> 00:13:39.200 sleep, affect cognition. They undeniably impact 00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:44.139 a whole Bunch more things including work, right? 00:13:44.179 --> 00:13:47.360 You know when you're in pain or you can't sleep 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:52.559 You're not as effective in life the next day 00:13:52.559 --> 00:13:57.100 and that's part of what this takes into account 00:13:57.100 --> 00:13:59.980 But it's still using an old model, isn't it? 00:14:00.039 --> 00:14:04.779 Yep And it's one that as I have said the actuarial 00:14:04.779 --> 00:14:07.440 industry and everything else went away from now 00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:13.139 with Congress and with the VA The system, fundamentally, 00:14:14.159 --> 00:14:18.220 it means well, but it wasn't well designed, even 00:14:18.220 --> 00:14:23.620 at its time, but because, like with many things 00:14:23.620 --> 00:14:26.639 in government, the inertia carried over. I mean, 00:14:26.659 --> 00:14:28.580 it was President Reagan who once said that the 00:14:28.580 --> 00:14:34.799 closest thing to eternity, to immortality, is 00:14:34.799 --> 00:14:39.559 a federal government program. In this respect, 00:14:39.580 --> 00:14:42.659 he's right. Because so much of federal law is 00:14:42.659 --> 00:14:46.480 now built on this table, built on these assumptions, 00:14:46.580 --> 00:14:50.980 built on everything else, even if the US wanted 00:14:50.980 --> 00:14:54.139 to try to move to a comparable system like the 00:14:54.139 --> 00:14:57.559 British or the Australians or the Canadians run, 00:14:58.740 --> 00:15:03.779 you can bolt things on, but you cannot do a wholesale 00:15:03.779 --> 00:15:09.730 tear down and rebuild like they did. Realistically 00:15:09.730 --> 00:15:13.070 one of the things you I want to read a sentence 00:15:13.070 --> 00:15:17.009 from your op -ed which sure says and and as you 00:15:17.009 --> 00:15:19.789 listen to this sentence I'm thinking about well, 00:15:19.789 --> 00:15:25.490 this is a 1945 model and We thought about things 00:15:25.490 --> 00:15:29.570 like mental health a whole lot differently Almost 00:15:29.570 --> 00:15:31.529 a hundred years ago than we do today you wrote 00:15:31.529 --> 00:15:35.250 as a result the system continues to undervalue 00:15:35.250 --> 00:15:38.830 cognitive, psychological, or fatigue -based disability 00:15:38.830 --> 00:15:45.710 relative to physical loss. Indeed. And that's 00:15:45.710 --> 00:15:50.590 just a societal reality between these 80 to 100 00:15:50.590 --> 00:15:54.350 year difference points, isn't it? Yes, sir. I 00:15:54.350 --> 00:15:59.070 mean, the... The state of the art for psycho 00:15:59.070 --> 00:16:02.450 for psychiatric condition for psychiatry and 00:16:02.450 --> 00:16:05.850 neurology was very very minimal at the world 00:16:05.850 --> 00:16:11.029 at the at the cut of World War two and then like 00:16:11.029 --> 00:16:14.850 and obviously with the Vietnam era and PTSD being 00:16:14.850 --> 00:16:17.490 formalized as a diagnosis and everything else 00:16:17.490 --> 00:16:21.570 and with increase in neurological studies and 00:16:21.570 --> 00:16:22.970 knowledge of the brain everything looks like 00:16:23.129 --> 00:16:26.210 Those things have been developed and are certainly 00:16:26.210 --> 00:16:29.850 way more, way more is known, way more is advanced, 00:16:29.909 --> 00:16:32.490 but still they are discovering new things all 00:16:32.490 --> 00:16:37.289 the time. The brain, both as a physical organ 00:16:37.289 --> 00:16:41.250 and as the seed of consciousness. What we are 00:16:41.250 --> 00:16:45.850 learning in medical research, which I do as my 00:16:45.850 --> 00:16:51.549 day job now, is undeniably growing all the time. 00:16:52.850 --> 00:16:58.070 And policy should hopefully be at least relatively 00:16:58.070 --> 00:17:03.190 informed by it to move along with it. But in 00:17:03.190 --> 00:17:06.369 this case, with limited exception, it by and 00:17:06.369 --> 00:17:09.009 large hasn't. And one of the points you make 00:17:09.009 --> 00:17:13.809 of this system, which has its flaws, is that 00:17:13.809 --> 00:17:17.490 as a result, quote, regional offices measure 00:17:17.490 --> 00:17:20.829 performance by closure volume, not accuracy. 00:17:21.099 --> 00:17:23.720 In some offices, Grant claims twice the rate 00:17:23.720 --> 00:17:27.740 of others. That just adds additional confusion 00:17:27.740 --> 00:17:31.019 and to some level, I guess, wouldn't you say 00:17:31.019 --> 00:17:34.660 ever sort of gaming the system? Well, certainly. 00:17:35.039 --> 00:17:40.680 I mean, so in my case, I have PTSD, I have apnea, 00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:43.839 I have a metabolic condition all assessed as 00:17:43.839 --> 00:17:47.920 being service connected. So for which I get my 00:17:47.920 --> 00:17:52.319 88%. So, you know, it rounds to 90. Now, which 00:17:52.319 --> 00:17:55.079 is funny because when discussing with friends 00:17:55.079 --> 00:17:57.519 who are veterans who live in other jurisdictions 00:17:57.519 --> 00:18:02.180 and where I have similar levels of impairment 00:18:02.180 --> 00:18:08.519 to them for similar things, and yet they got 00:18:08.519 --> 00:18:13.079 their 100 percent rating, I didn't. Now, I'm 00:18:13.079 --> 00:18:17.339 not belabored, I'm not saying woe is me, but 00:18:17.339 --> 00:18:24.519 then got me curious as to If my rating is different 00:18:24.519 --> 00:18:30.480 than theirs, then what studies exist as far as. 00:18:30.859 --> 00:18:36.980 The relatively differential rates of. Of closure 00:18:36.980 --> 00:18:43.640 and or a rating being granted and apparently 00:18:43.640 --> 00:18:46.579 in this case, actually a bit unsurprisingly. 00:18:47.930 --> 00:18:50.289 VA did the bulk of that analysis themselves. 00:18:50.329 --> 00:18:55.630 They are well aware that whether or not you have 00:18:55.630 --> 00:18:59.509 representation, whether or not what region you're 00:18:59.509 --> 00:19:03.269 in makes a difference as far as whether or not 00:19:03.269 --> 00:19:06.289 your claim is accepted or not. And in my case, 00:19:06.529 --> 00:19:10.849 I am somebody who over the last 21 and a half 00:19:10.849 --> 00:19:14.029 years as a civilian veteran, I have lived in 00:19:14.029 --> 00:19:17.250 the Seattle area. I have lived in the DC area, 00:19:17.710 --> 00:19:19.990 both in Maryland and Virginia, but it doesn't 00:19:19.990 --> 00:19:23.569 matter because fundamentally that's all covered. 00:19:23.730 --> 00:19:26.029 I've lived in Philadelphia. I've lived in upstate 00:19:26.029 --> 00:19:30.470 New York. I've lived in Vermont. I've lived in 00:19:30.470 --> 00:19:33.750 multiple jurisdictions. And as a result, I've 00:19:33.750 --> 00:19:37.269 had assessments at various times done through 00:19:37.269 --> 00:19:45.009 various VA offices that One, if I had a bit more 00:19:45.009 --> 00:19:50.890 stability, maybe I could have, but I don't want 00:19:50.890 --> 00:19:54.410 to. As you say, it shouldn't be about where you 00:19:54.410 --> 00:19:58.089 live. It shouldn't be about what regional office 00:19:58.089 --> 00:20:02.890 or what raider is, but if the system is so archaic 00:20:02.890 --> 00:20:05.369 that you can have such variability, makes you 00:20:05.369 --> 00:20:08.630 wonder about the system. I want to have you comment 00:20:08.630 --> 00:20:10.690 about another line that you wrote that I found 00:20:10.690 --> 00:20:14.329 interesting, which was, Quote, the VA must replace 00:20:14.329 --> 00:20:17.930 its independence -based math with a synergy -aware 00:20:17.930 --> 00:20:21.109 domain -weighted model that advances the models 00:20:21.109 --> 00:20:24.529 inferred by the militaries of America's allies, 00:20:25.069 --> 00:20:30.089 including the UK, Canada, and Australia. So this 00:20:30.089 --> 00:20:33.289 doesn't have to be brand -new fresh ground that 00:20:33.289 --> 00:20:36.269 Congress plows. They have places they can look, 00:20:36.670 --> 00:20:39.289 where where maybe we would get better results 00:20:39.289 --> 00:20:41.769 for not only the government, but also for all 00:20:41.769 --> 00:20:44.470 the veterans in terms of certainty, right? Is 00:20:44.470 --> 00:20:46.809 that what you're telling me? Functionally, yes. 00:20:47.329 --> 00:20:50.990 Now, as I was saying a bit earlier, ideally, 00:20:51.670 --> 00:20:55.509 it would be great if you could tear down and 00:20:55.509 --> 00:20:58.809 rebuild the entire system. That isn't a feasible 00:20:58.809 --> 00:21:00.950 option. Well, certainly not politically, but 00:21:00.950 --> 00:21:05.069 also functionally, because considering all the 00:21:05.069 --> 00:21:07.890 veterans who live with the system as it currently 00:21:07.890 --> 00:21:12.430 is, if the system was changed, that would require 00:21:12.430 --> 00:21:16.390 substantive reevaluations of everybody, and I 00:21:16.390 --> 00:21:19.930 don't think that could feasibly be done, certainly 00:21:19.930 --> 00:21:25.289 not in a short matter of time. So even though 00:21:25.289 --> 00:21:31.849 that would be the ideal, there are two... ideas 00:21:31.849 --> 00:21:35.329 in practice, which could be relatively easy implemented. 00:21:36.009 --> 00:21:41.529 One of which is either a change in the product 00:21:41.529 --> 00:21:45.109 formula that the VA uses that allows for a correlative 00:21:45.109 --> 00:21:49.369 factor between the various conditions, which 00:21:49.369 --> 00:21:51.609 mathematically would be easy, but then would 00:21:51.609 --> 00:21:57.730 require, if implemented, would in no way decrease 00:21:57.730 --> 00:22:02.569 any veteran's rating and would either be the 00:22:02.569 --> 00:22:05.750 same or increase in all cases because of the 00:22:05.750 --> 00:22:09.309 multiplicative factor and the various math ethics 00:22:09.309 --> 00:22:14.769 that I will avoid because I am sure most veterans 00:22:14.769 --> 00:22:17.349 do not want to hear a lecture on applied mathematics 00:22:17.349 --> 00:22:31.259 from me. Let's just say if you have a Well, let's 00:22:31.259 --> 00:22:33.640 just go with that 70 % rating for PTSD and 50 00:22:33.640 --> 00:22:36.799 % rating for apnea of which I am sure a non -trivial 00:22:36.799 --> 00:22:41.359 percentage of your listeners have now That works 00:22:41.359 --> 00:22:45.039 out to 85 % because of you know, the 70 % so 00:22:45.039 --> 00:22:49.940 you have the 30 % remaining and yeah so now if 00:22:49.940 --> 00:22:53.559 you had built in a correlative factor that would 00:22:53.559 --> 00:22:57.240 work out to even with those two instead of 85 00:22:57.240 --> 00:23:03.789 Oh, what's that work out to? about 93 .2 % ish. 00:23:05.089 --> 00:23:08.390 And so that is to say, you get a net gain of 00:23:08.390 --> 00:23:15.109 7 .2 % or 8 .2 % because of building in the correlative 00:23:15.109 --> 00:23:19.150 factor, which should exist anyway. Now, as a 00:23:19.150 --> 00:23:21.789 practice, that would mean that you have a whole 00:23:21.789 --> 00:23:26.589 lot more veterans being pushed with a higher 00:23:26.589 --> 00:23:30.849 combined percentage. Arguably, it should happen 00:23:30.849 --> 00:23:35.630 that way anyway, but that also would require 00:23:35.630 --> 00:23:42.150 rerunning the calculations for all seven plus 00:23:42.150 --> 00:23:48.630 million veterans. Not hard to do, but as a practical 00:23:48.630 --> 00:23:52.390 matter, the easiest thing to do would be to bolt 00:23:52.390 --> 00:23:56.950 on a functional tier system that says anything 00:23:56.950 --> 00:24:02.279 between zero and 20 % Okay, like it minimal and 00:24:02.279 --> 00:24:07.299 then 20 and then over 20 to 40 being tier two 00:24:07.299 --> 00:24:13.880 over over 40 to 60 being tier three over Sorry 00:24:13.880 --> 00:24:18.119 over over 60 to 80 being tier four and then over 00:24:18.119 --> 00:24:23.460 80 to 100 being tier five which if you were to 00:24:23.460 --> 00:24:28.430 implement would also mean you wouldn't have veterans 00:24:28.430 --> 00:24:34.089 filing all the claims. Additional claims trying 00:24:34.089 --> 00:24:39.990 to get that last 10 or 20 percent because functionally 00:24:39.990 --> 00:24:44.390 anybody over 80 percent from a realistic point 00:24:44.390 --> 00:24:47.930 of view is functionally impaired to the point 00:24:47.930 --> 00:24:54.019 that civilian employment without Severe without 00:24:54.019 --> 00:24:56.720 a great deal of accommodation or flexibility 00:24:56.720 --> 00:25:02.880 and justice not feasible and the so Specifying 00:25:02.880 --> 00:25:07.180 between 83 and 88 and 92 and 97 percent is more 00:25:07.180 --> 00:25:11.579 of a bureaucratic exercise Not an actual one 00:25:11.579 --> 00:25:14.980 regarding veterans health and their ability to 00:25:14.980 --> 00:25:17.500 function That's a good point. Well, I really 00:25:17.500 --> 00:25:19.559 appreciate the time you've given us today, Everett. 00:25:19.619 --> 00:25:22.299 I thought the opinion piece did just that, made 00:25:22.299 --> 00:25:25.319 people think about it. I wanted to give a broader 00:25:25.319 --> 00:25:30.319 platform to it so that people can maybe understand 00:25:30.319 --> 00:25:32.259 a little bit, and if they get a chance, talk 00:25:32.259 --> 00:25:34.960 to their congressman or congresswoman and sort 00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:38.940 of say, you know, don't be afraid of fixing the 00:25:38.940 --> 00:25:42.680 system. There's some flaws in it. It's an old 00:25:42.680 --> 00:25:47.390 1945 model. We can do better. Sure, there's inertia, 00:25:47.650 --> 00:25:49.630 but you've given us some good ideas to think 00:25:49.630 --> 00:25:52.650 about. Again, Everett, thanks for your time today 00:25:52.650 --> 00:25:55.529 for Veterans Radio. I appreciate it, Mr. Jinn. 00:25:55.589 --> 00:25:57.730 Thank you very much. And I want to thank everybody 00:25:57.730 --> 00:26:00.549 for listening to Veterans Radio today. I am Jim 00:26:00.549 --> 00:26:03.430 Fossone. It's been a pleasure to be your host. 00:26:03.529 --> 00:26:06.230 I'm a Veterans disability lawyer at Legal Help 00:26:06.230 --> 00:26:10.150 for Veterans, and you can reach us at 800 -693 00:26:10.150 --> 00:26:15.059 -4800. or legalhelpforveterans .com on the web. 00:26:15.779 --> 00:26:18.619 You can follow Veterans Radio on Facebook and 00:26:18.619 --> 00:26:21.640 listen to its podcasts and internet radio shows 00:26:21.640 --> 00:26:25.680 by visiting us at veteransradio .org. That's 00:26:25.680 --> 00:26:29.420 veteransradio .org. If you have a VA claim denied 00:26:29.420 --> 00:26:31.660 by the Board of Veterans Appeals, contact Legal 00:26:31.660 --> 00:26:36.319 Help for Veterans at 1 -800 -693 -4800. They're 00:26:36.319 --> 00:26:38.380 experts in handling cases before the U .S. Court 00:26:38.380 --> 00:26:40.380 of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Their number 00:26:40.380 --> 00:27:06.579 again, 1 -800 -693 -4800. post 423 in Ann Arbor, 00:27:07.619 --> 00:27:11.700 and the American Legion press corn post 46 also 00:27:11.700 --> 00:27:12.380 in Ann Arbor.