News-Info-Alerts

Re: Certain POWs Not Eligible for Compensation

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: April 23, 2003

"PFC Lynch, Other POWs Not Eligible for Compensation
By Jeff Johnson

CNSNews.com Congressional Bureau Chief

Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - American service members taken prisoner by a foreign military face an endless list of fears, including the possibility of torture and execution, being used as "guinea pigs" for medical or weapons experiments by enemy forces and the very real threat that they will never see their families or homes ever again.

But former prisoners of war face additional hurdles in getting their lives back to normal, some of them depending on how long they were held captive.

Many people are not aware that there is currently no special pension or other monetary compensation for U.S. service men and women taken prisoner while fighting for their country. While Americans are probably most conscious of the U.S. soldiers recently freed from Iraqi captivity, there are currently more than 42,000 American former prisoners of war (POW). Some 39,000 of those are veterans of World War II who are, on average, 81 years old.

Earlier this month, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) re-introduced the Former Prisoners of War Special Compensation Act (H.R. 850).

He first introduced the bill late last year, while serving as a member of the House Subcommittee on Veterans Benefits - where he learned that no such compensation existed.

"It surprised me, too," Simpson told CNSNews.com. "We're looking at guys who are getting on up there in age and have never been compensated for their POW status.

"We compensate Medal of Honor winners but not POWs," he continued, "so this is based on the same model."

Simpson's bill would pay each American who is a former prisoner of war, detained or interned for at least 30 days various rates of compensation, ranging from $150 a month for those detained for between 30 and 120 days to a maximum of $450 a month for those detained more than 540 days. Such payments would be exempt from income taxes.

The bill would also prohibit payment of veterans' disability compensation for any alcohol- or drug-related disability, even if the abuse was secondary to a service-connected disability.

The 30-day minimum confinement period was placed in Simpson's legislation prior to the most recent Iraqi conflict, and Simpson said it is there only because the proposal is modeled on existing law.

"In my own mind, as I've watched the events in Iraq and these prisoners that were just released, I thought to myself, 'Were this bill to become law, they wouldn't qualify, and should they qualify?'" he explained. "And I think they probably should."

Simpson said that, if he can get the support of the Veterans Affairs Committee, he would support removing the 30-day exemption from his own proposal. His bill would already remove a requirement that former prisoners of war must have been detained or interned for at least 90 days to be eligible for veterans' outpatient dental care.

Special Health Benefits Only for POWs Held more than 30 Days

"Wars are moving very fast now, compared to what they were when we were taken prisoner back in World War II," said Leslie Jackson, executive director of the American Ex-Prisoners of War.

"You went days without anybody being notified that you were a prisoner, and you waited - sometimes weeks and months - for your family to be notified that you were taken prisoner," he continued. "Today, it happens instantaneously because the TV cameras are right there with them."

Jackson, his organization and other veterans groups are fighting for changes in the law that would benefit former POWs like PFC. Jessica Lynch, the American soldier recently held captive for several days in an Iraqi hospital.

"The traumatic experience of being captured in each situation is different. There are no two alike," he said. "For anybody to sit in judgment on that experience, I think, is a little bit much."

Jackson is referring to the fact that Lynch - whose leg Iraqi doctors were preparing to amputate when she was rescued - will receive lifetime medical care from the Veterans Administration for her injuries and resulting complications because the injuries were received in the line of duty. But, because Lynch and all of her colleagues taken prisoner by the Iraqis were held for less than 30 days, they are not eligible for treatment of a number of ailments that commonly plague former POWs.

Legislation Would Expand Current POW Health Benefits

Florida Republican Congressman Michael Bilirakis has reintroduced a bill he originally sponsored this past year to change the current law.

"It's just sort of come to light, really, because of the situation in Iraq that, yes, these individuals will not qualify for benefits because they were not held in captivity for more than 30 days," Rebecca Hyder, chief of staff for Bilirakis, explained. "Congressman Bilirakis has always felt that, given everything they have endured, we really sort of owe them a special debt of gratitude."

Jackson agrees. He calls the 30-day minimum an "elimination period" and told CNSNews.com Monday that such an exclusion is no longer practical.

"We felt that it would be advantageous to eliminate any waiting period so that, if you were held for just one day, you would be eligible for POW benefits," he said. "Just being captured, facing the enemy is a traumatic experience, and that's enough for benefits as far as we're concerned."

One section of current law regulating medical benefits for POWs is 38 USC 1112, which excludes POWs held for less than 30 days from treatment for conditions such as chronic dysentery, malnutrition, psychosis, post-traumatic osteoarthritis and peptic ulcer disease unless they prevail in an arduous appeals process. Those ailments often develop or become debilitating after former POWs return to civilian life.

Additionally, regardless of how long they were held prisoner, POWs now have to go through that same appeals process to receive treatment for heart disease, stroke, liver disease, type II diabetes or osteoporosis that were triggered by their experience or the conditions of their captivity.

The Prisoners of War Benefits Act of 2003 (H.R. 348), introduced by Bilirakis, who is a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, would change that.
The bill would eliminate the 30-day minimum captivity period to receive medical treatment for the conditions listed above and add those conditions not currently part of the law to the list of "presumptives" [sic] or diseases and conditions that the Veterans Administration must presume were service-connected in POWs.

Bilirakis' proposal would also eliminate a 90-day minimum captivity period for POWs seeking dental treatment and would establish a process to allow the Veterans Administration to add new diseases or conditions to the "presumptives" [sic] list without prior congressional approval, which it must now receive.
The bill is matched in the Senate by S. 517, introduced by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. The House bill currently has 20 cosponsors. Murray's Senate bill, which was introduced March 5 of this year, has none.

"I can't imagine why there would be any opposition," Jackson said. "It's just logical."

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