The Veterans Affairs Department has extended its deadline for veterans to receive reimbursement for medical costs related to exposure to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and announced it will start paying out-of-pocket health costs for family members with certain health conditions related to drinking toxic water at the military base.
Complying with a law passed in 2012 — the Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act — VA has released two announcements clarifying its health care coverage and reimbursement policies for illnesses in veterans and family members who lived at Camp Lejeune from 1957 to 1987.
More than 750,000 people may have been exposed to polluted drinking water at Camp Lejeune that contained volatile organic compounds and other chemicals like benzene and vinyl chloride.
When reports of the contamination first surfaced, it was thought to be confined to one main housing area, the result of illegal dumping by an off-base dry cleaner. Later, the pollution was found to be more extensive, encompassing two major water treatment facilities fouled by industrial spills, poor disposal practices and leaking underground storage tanks as well as the dry cleaning compounds.
The 15 illnesses covered under the law include certain cancers, such as breast, lung, esophageal and bladder cancer, as well as other medical conditions like kidney and liver problems, infertility, miscarriage and birth defects.
VA began providing care to affected veterans for these diseases after the Camp Lejeune water law passed in 2012. But VA did not announce its plans to pay for family members’ care until Sept. 24 — and even those procedures have not been finalized.
Retired Marine Master Sgt. Jerome Ensminger has helped lead the fight to uncover the problems and push for legislation to help affected families. His 9-year-old daughter Janey died in 1987 of leukemia, and he knows many service members, family and friends who either are sick or have died from exposure-related diseases.
He finds it unacceptable that families are still waiting two years after the law’s passage to have their medical bills covered.
“I realize all of this happened prior to [VA] Secretary [Robert] McDonald’s watch … but as CEO of Procter & Gamble, would he have found it acceptable for his research and development division to have created a new product and his marketing division take more two years to sell it?” Ensminger said.
Under the new rules, veterans have until Sept. 24, 2016, to request status as a Camp Lejeune veteran and be eligible for retroactive reimbursement of out-of-pocket medical costs back to Aug. 6, 2012 — the day the legislation authorized VA to begin providing benefits for Camp Lejeune veterans.
Veterans can apply for Camp Lejeune status at any time, even after the 2016 date, but will not be eligible for reimbursement.
Under the new rules, VA will reimburse family members diagnosed with one of the 15 contaminant-related illnesses back to March 26, 2013, the date Congress provided funding for the law.
Family members also must apply for status using the Camp Lejeune Family Member Heath Care Program Application form.
VA will not provide any direct medical care to affected family members.
North Carolina Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan said after the VA announcement that they were pleased the Obama administration is moving toward helping affected veterans and families but expressed disappointment with how long the process has taken.
“Unfortunately, many who were exposed to the contaminated water have already died as a result of their exposures and will not be able to receive the help this law provides. I fully expect VA will now move swiftly to implement all the regulations and extend a helping hand to the victims of this tragic episode in our nation’s history,” said Burr, a Republican.
“Our veterans and their families exposed to toxic water contamination have waited too long for answers, and I am pleased they will now begin to receive the critical health care benefits they deserve,” said Hagan, a Democrat.
The senators also are pressing for additional legislation to expand the date of eligibility back to 1953 based on evidence that the drinking water contained cancer-causing contaminants years before the current accepted dates.
Ensminger says his fight also isn’t over; he plans to push for a law requiring VA to deem the 15 illnesses and diseases related to military service and therefore, eligible for VA disability compensation benefits.
While some Camp Lejeune veterans receive disability payments for their service-related exposure at the installation, the benefit is not automatic. It should be, said Ensminger, who added that he is healthy and would not benefit financially from any change.
“The law we have right now is an admission of guilt. Why do you rate health care but have to jump through hoops to get service-connected disability? We were poisoned,” Ensminger said.
The water contamination at Camp Lejeune is the largest environmental hazards incident on a Defense Department facility in the United States.
