Could a Few Thousand Million Dollars Buy Us a Cure?

Got this from an Oct 2013 Congress report
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CRPT-113hrpt247/html/CRPT-113hrpt247.htm

An analysis of data collected by the Department of Veterans Affairs concluded that total amount of disability
compensation paid for tinnitus by the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2012 was $1,500,000,000.

Based on projected rates of growth, the amount of disability compensation payable to veterans for tinnitus is
expected to exceed $3,000,000,000 in 2017.

Just in case your math is rusty, a billion is a thousand million,
so that's 3000 million dollars, folks. no pocket change.

Sure this projected cost hasn't happened yet, but odds on it will.


In 2005, compensation was 'just' $418million, whilst research was $1.5million.
If the figures were reversed, well we'd probably not be on this board.


A quick look at ATA figures shows the full horror.
(http://www.ata.org/sites/ata.org/files/pdf/2011_ADV_Master_Packet.pdf)

A conservative add-up of totals (give or take a few hundred million)
and we see that 2005-2014, tinnitus will have cost the American TAX PAYER
in the region of 12 billion dollars,
that is twelve thousand million dollars!!!!

In 2013, the noble Jack Vernon Walk to Silence Tinnitus raised about $60,000.
Families and kids trying their best for loved ones.

This huge gap between astronomical hemorrhaging of public funds and research funding
should have been nailed a decade ago. It is a disservice to injured veterans who receive paltry
payouts and often ineffective therapies. It is also a disservice to the tinnitus community at large.

With foresight, federal government could have saved thousands of millions of dollars
(the figures are mind-boggling) and funded enough research to help veterans
and millions of us worldwide, and perhaps even cure governmental negligence.

Under the Federal Tort Claims Act, you can actually sue government for negligence.
This would be the BIGGEST class action in history. Anyone here a lawyer.

 

I can see you are confused because you are from Europe. In America no one expects the government to be competent or useful in any way. Recently a type of jet that cost the taxpayers $400 Billion was grounded. So far it is years behind schedule , and has not been proven to be of any use to the military at all.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/04/us-lockheed-fighter-idUSKBN0F901T20140704

No one is outraged and no one cares. Chances are the media will ignore it and move on to whatever celebrity scandal they can use to get views. If you were to tell any typical American that the government was wasting billions by not resaerching a potentially curable illness they would at most elicit a dismissive yawn and ask "What else is new?"

I don't know about Europe, but in America we don't vote in politicians based on job performance we vote based on how much they make is feel good. Any subsequent competence by a politician is only a coincidence and not by design of the voting public. In fact it's possible some of the decisions to waste millions on bogus "tinnitus treatments" that aren't actually treatments aren't even made by legislators. Much of the time these policies are initiated by unelected bureaucrats who stuff things into military spending bills that 0% of the congressman actually read before they vote for. No medical experts are asked for their opinion, no studies are done to show whether this is money well spent, there's no quality control to see whether these billion dollar tinnitus treatments actually help vets. Instead we just short shortsightedly throw money at a problem hoping it will go away without stopping two seconds to worry about efficiency or if anyone is actually being helped. Anyone asking for money to research tinnitus is most likely shouted down and called a leech.

I think this clip from the Onion just about sums up the problem.

Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into...

 

Yeah Stina...Have been figuring this snowball will finally start getting too big to melt and will smash into some impact. With the VA getting all sorts of bad press and "negelct accusations (facts)" right now, it may even have a shake up...Maybe the tinnitus part will get some rocket fuel behind it once they figure these numbers are not going to go away. Unless they "ignore" vets some more....But that cat is clawing out of the bag!
Good post!
M.

 

I am a vet. I get $130 a month for my tinnitus. The large sum appropriated for compensation is due to fact that at present there are about 800,000 vets with T.

The last figures I read on the subject quoted a figure of almost 2.5 billion last year alone. This includes compensation and related health care such as hearing aids.

It is a lot easier to just pay me 130 dollars a month and hope I will just go away rather than worry about a cure.

 

Not sure about the world but yes in the USA people would rather pay athletes and entertainers 10s 100s millions. Shallow world we live in.

 

I was a vet 1966-1970. I was a firefighter in the Air Force. We would do flight line standby as jets for take off and land. Sometimes we would standby as they stress tested the jets. Strap them down full breaks full throttle. We would never given ear protection. I surmise that added to my hearing loss. I never filed a clcaim do you think it is worth a try? Thanks, Ken

 

Ken... Vietnam? Flight deck of a carrier? Wherever....Filing a claim = HELL YES!!!

Go add to the VA's list of numbers for: "Tinnitus and Hearing" sufferers. Even if it just adds to the statistic it all works by numbers anyhow. Just say your T is getting worse and you are not a happy camper. You are getting tired of "tough-guying" it through while they throw all those "bonuses" at the jerks keeping vets off appointment lists for 6 months to make their 'numbers' look good! Put the darn money into serious T research efforts instead!!!

No bloody David Clarke or similar earmuffs on a flight line!!! That is just criminal.

Take care, Zimichael

 

Ken,

I was AF also during the Vietnam war. I had sufficient hearing loss upon discharge to cause T. but did not have it at that time. It developed later. VA said hearing loss was enough to be probable cause for tinnitus so claim was approved.
They will look at hearing tests before and after discharge and determine if you had sufficient lost during your tour for approval.

I enrolled in a VA TRT program for tinnitus before filing a claim. They are suppose to have this program in place at all large VA centers. This speeded my claim approval as I had already been seen by doctors and audiologists before filing. This will be a requirement as the VA doctor will be the determining factor if your claim is approved. My claim was approved in about 5 weeks from filing.

I was given a 10 % disability rating for the tinnitus which is all the law allows regardless of the severity of your tinnitus.

I had no idea that I could be compensated for tinnitus until after I visited the VA. I really could have filed years ago. I understand Vets now are being allowed to file even while still in service. A far cry from the Vietnam days when this country hated and spit on its vets.

If I can be of any help feel free to email me a private message and I will discuss in detail the events. Hell yes apply, as my VA rep. said "you earned it"

 

@Relic Hunter , Thank you that would be great. It doesn't appear that I may start a private conversation on your profile.

P.S. I was stationed 1967-1968 South Korea.

 

As a European I view America as a truly great nation.
It is the people who have been betrayed by a small corrupt & greedy minority of power-brokers.
I was honestly impressed by Obama's Brain Initiative throwing $100m at research.
But when you see 12,000 million dollars disappear, well Obama's thing now looks like pretty weak window-dressing considering how much money there really is (the fed printing presses must be overheating).

The people care, the vets on low payouts care, its a shame govt doesn't.
Its astounding really that they couldn't see this trend years ago and just pour a ton into research,
if only to cut their losses in the future. As predicted, 2017 will see 3000 million go into compensation.

But the point is it DOES NOT compensate for reduced quality of life, not even close, it's a token pay-off waste.
If suffering vets only knew, they would want that money thrown into a lasting cure for them and their families.
This is an issue about awareness and responsibility.
I don't think our eu govts could get away with this sort of scandal, cos that's what it is my friends.

Thank you for replying to this thread.
It is great that we actually have veterans commenting.
Your govt should honor you, not treat you like this or let such a situation like this arise where
the dumbass ill-educated will point fingers at DVA for sucking up funds. This is plainly not true and you
have already suffered enough in honorably serving your country without having to defend
the negligent actions of elected politicians. This was simply too big for someone not to see.
Researchers would kill for just 1% of this money.