Comment by 9x39
1 day ago
I agree with you about the VA, although everything I know is secondhand.
I make two generalizations from veterans I know: one type accumulates injuries throughout service (neck, knees, hips, shoulders, back, toxic exposure) but being the walk-it-off types, never documented much because they were often deployed and didn't bother with paperwork. Bitterly complains about the VA and their limited or temporary disability ratings despite grinding pain and difficulty in later life.
Second type is similar to the first type, but played the 'game' optimally, documented, documented, and documented. While you can absolutely get some of the same injuries, I was surprised to find things like mild sleep apnea and male pattern baldness helped get someone a permanent 100% disability rating. No doubt life isn't easy, but to think this individual is 100% disabled is a bit of a stretch when they also work full-time for .gov doing project work.
My point is that like a video game, people are very good at finding the optimal or 'meta' path to maximizing outcomes in a set of rules, and outcomes from a system can be different than what casual observers might think is the intended purpose of the system.
> male pattern baldness helped get someone a permanent 100% disability rating
I find that very hard to believe. Do you have evidence that this is true?
As a veteran I haven't heard of that particular one, but I've heard of disability ratings given out for trivial enough things that I think it's plausible. I knew of one guy who got it for PTSD after being stationed in Okinawa doing an office job for 4 years. And I know another who has a rating for migraines, which he freely admits to not having and lying to the VA about.
I never applied for disability of any kind, but it would seem that the VA examiners question nothing and hand out ratings like candy. According to the migraine guy, it's one of those situations where they have to find things to spend their budget on or they lose it next year. I'm of the opinion that if they can afford to spend their budget supporting freeloaders and liars then perhaps it would be better used by some other office, but I digress.
I've mostly heard about the disability rating of the VA being a way the system screws people over using technicalities by judging them as 'partially able' despite there being few to no jobs that can actually utilize them. Hence the desperation to find some way to boost their percentage to something livable.