VA disability is like an insurance policy for military members.
Are you saying that if Bill Gates gets in a traffic accident and his car is wrecked, Progressive shouldn’t have to pay for a new car?
I’m not sure I agree VA disability is like insurance paying for a wrecked car. Wouldn’t it be closer to workman’s compensation? The rules for that vary significantly from state to state. Some pay based on the level of impairment, some pay based on loss of earning potential, some cover the actual existing financial losses that are suffered, and some pay a combination of the above. If I understand it correctly, the third approach, for example, would only pay if the person wasn’t employed. If they found a job, the disability would be cut off.
Disability is a very difficult subject. No one wants to prevent the truly disabled, including vets, from being helped. On the other hand, the disability rolls are growing rapidly. There was a time, I think, when most Americans avoided these programs out of sense of pride and self reliance. Now, people, including vets, seem to use every opportunity to get a bigger cut from Uncle Sam.
Again, I don’t know of anyone who would deny payouts to someone who had their legs blown off in combat. Those vets deserve medical care for life as well as compensation for the loss of their limbs.
No one is stopping any vet from applying for disability. Like I wrote earlier, the military itself encourages everyone to apply to see how much they can get. I guess it’s that attitude that disappoints me. Combine that with knowing/meeting many “disabled” vets who show absolutely no evidence of disability whatsoever (I know. I know. I’m no doctor, and there’s always mental things like PTSD...for vets I know were never in combat of course), and I get the sense (anecdotally of course) that some of these folks shouldn’t be on disability.