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Proposed bill would expand health care for Vietnam War veterans sickened by Agent Orange
Manatee County veterans are applauding a bill that would expand health care coverage for vets exposed to the toxic chemical Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.
Under the Keeping Our Promises Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, nine more diseases would be added to the list of conditions presumed to be caused by exposure to Agent Orange.
Among the conditions joining the list are bladder cancer, hypothyroidism, hypertension, stroke, early-onset peripheral neuropathy, and Parkinson-like syndromes.
“Personally, I think it is a great idea. Nobody knew how deadly Agent Orange would be for us. They need to take care of the problem,” said Don Courtney, a Vietnam War veteran, member of the Florida Veterans Hall of Fame, and former chair of the Manatee County Veterans Council.
Recent research by the National Academy of Medicine has connected these nine diseases to Agent Orange. “It’s time we recognize these diseases in law and make sure our veterans have the health coverage they need and deserve,” Buchanan said in a press release.
Adding these diseases to the current list of conditions for presumptive coverage would allow veterans suffering from them to receive much-needed disability compensation from the VA.
“We cannot afford to wait any longer to help our nation’s veterans who have fallen ill to the exposure of the toxic chemical Agent Orange,” Buchanan said. “These veterans are heroes and they deserve the proper healthcare and treatment for the sacrifices they made for our country.”
The U.S. Air Force sprayed nearly 11 million gallons of Agent Orange in Vietnam to defoliate jungles and remove cover used by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers. According to the National Academy of Medicine, their findings revealed “suggestive” evidence that eight of the diseases covered by the bill could have resulted from being exposed to Agent Orange. Researchers also say they found “sufficient” evidence for hypertension.
Carl Hunsinger, president and founder of Manasota Veterans, past chair of the Manatee Veterans Council, and a member of the Florida Veterans Hall of Fame, called the proposed legislation long-overdue.
“It is a shame it has taken this long. People were tramping right through it, touching it. Veterans have been waiting a long time for a lot of things,” Hunsinger said.
Ronald Babcock, a Lakewood Ranch resident and a Navy veterans of the Vietnam War, has long advocated for the extension of healthcare benefits to blue water Navy vets.
“We drank it, we bathed in it, we cooked in it and we climbed all over the planes that flew through it,” Babcock said.
In 2019, Buchanan co-sponsored the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act (H.R. 299), which provided VA health benefits for Navy veterans who served on ships and ports off the coast of Vietnam during the war. Navy veterans who served in Vietnam, commonly referred to as “Blue Water” veterans, were eligible to receive benefits under the Agent Orange Act of 1991, but their eligibility was discontinued in 2002 by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act became law in 2019.
Buchanan represents more than 88,000 veterans in Southwest Florida.
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