Austin 360: News: U.S. move angers vets who smoked

WASHINGTON -- Tobacco is part of the military memories of millions of Americans. Drill sergeants barked, "Smoke 'em if you've got 'em," during breaks in basic training. Free mini-packs of cigarettes were included in the K-rations that soldiers opened in the foxholes of World War II, and in the C-rations that grunts consumed in several wars. PXs sold cartons at bargain prices at bases around the world.

After serving in military units that facilitated -- if not encouraged -- smoking, many veterans are now angry that the Clinton administration and Congress are balking at paying billions of dollars in disability and health-care costs for tobacco-related diseases that the veterans claim are connected to their service.

"The facts show that the military pushed a dangerous, addictive drug on its troops," said Bill Russo, director of the benefits program for the Vietnam Veterans of America. "Therefore, veterans must be fairly compensated for smoking-related diseases."

The Clinton administration disagrees. In its proposed budget to Congress, the Department of Veterans Affairs said it expected to save $17 billion over the next five years by denying the expected claims of 500,000 veterans seeking compensation for smoking-related diseases. Congressional approval is required, but both the Senate and House budget committees have endorsed the cutoff.

Ken McKinnon, a VA spokesman, said a veteran's lung cancer shouldn't be classified as a service-related illness if he started smoking in World War II and then continued for half a century of civilian life. The use of tobacco was a personal choice made by some members of the military and unrelated to their duties, the VA maintains.

Many in Congress seem inclined to agree.

"I don't think anybody in America believes you should be entitled to get money from the federal government for being a smoker," said House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. "It is not service-connected. It is not related to anything that happened to you in the military."

The issue is complicated, however, because the VA's own lawyers have twice ruled -- in 1993 and again last year -- that the agency is obligated to pay benefits to veterans who can show that their illness is connected to smoking that began during their military service.

Such claims are currently being paid, and payments will not be stopped on any claim approved before Congress acts, McKinnon said. Service-related disability payments range from $95 to $1,964 a month, and providing VA medical care for these illnesses can cost many times that much, he said.

The Clinton administration wants to stop such payments, and veterans groups believe the House tacitly went along when it approved a $218 billion transportation bill this week. Money that would have been used for the VA to pay smoking-related claims by veterans was included as $10.5 billion of cuts used to finance the transportation bill, the veterans group charge.

"Congress robbing disabled veterans to pay for roads, bridges and trains is outrageous public policy," George Duggins, president of the Vietnam Veterans of America, wrote in a letter to all members of Congress.

All of the nation's major veterans organizations are lobbying for the VA to provide health care and disability compensation for tobacco-related problems.

"Taking money from sick veterans to build highways in an election year is an extraordinarily bad idea," warned Anthony Jordan, commander of the 2.9 million-member American Legion, the nation's largest veterans group.

The VA says the costs of covering claims by veterans and their survivors for smoking-related ailments would be immense. Paying for the benefits out of the VA budget could "endanger the integrity" of the agency's system of health care and disability benefits, McKinnon said.

In a report to the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, a researcher said that 75.4 percent of all veterans have smoked -- 20 percentage points higher than the general population. Jeffrey Harris, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, said providing benefits for all veterans' smoking-related illnesses would cost $5 billion the first year.

Veterans advocates argue that the costs are being exaggerated.

"Actually, these claims are very hard to win, since a veteran must prove (with medical evidence) that their disease is the result of smoking in service or smoking after getting addicted to cigarettes in service," Russo told the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs this week.

The veterans' benefits are not part of any proposed settlement with the tobacco industry.