Question:
My husband is a Vietnam veteran fighting his second round of lung cancer in 13 months. He is rated at 100 percent but only temporary. It has spread to his liver and is now stage 4 but they still left it as temporary. Will this make any difference for me? He is worried about me when something happens to him. Do I need to push for permanent? I did have the doctor send a letter that it will never go away he is 71 years old. Thank you
Jim's Reply:
The VA disability system holds some interesting and very outdated views of how disabling conditions will affect the veteran. When it is a service connected cancer we're talking about, VA will rate all cancer as a temporary condition that can and will be cured. How this thought process came to be isn't exactly clear but like so many processes at your VA, there doesn't seem to be any way to change this behavior.
Thus a veteran who has a service connected lung cancer (an agent orange presumptive cancer) will be rated as 100% temporarily disabled until such time as the vet has surgery or other curative treatments at which time the veteran will then be rated to determine the permanently disabling conditions left by the treatments.
For the purposes of a dependent potentially receiving the DIC benefit a veteran most often must die from a service connected condition for the dependent to be eligible. In the circumstance you and he face today it's likely that he will pass from the cancer and even though it is rated as a temporary benefit you will be eligible for the DIC benefit.
Give him my best. Good luck.