Last year, for instance, 680,834 veterans were categorized as disabled for allergic rhinitis, or hay fever, VA figures show. That’s up from 30,705 in 2006 — a 22-fold increase. Payouts for allergic rhinitis can range between $176 and $750 a month.
Claims for irritable bowel syndrome have also soared; since 2013, approved cases have risen 400 percent. Cases of hiatal hernia, a condition that causes heartburn and acid reflux, have increased tenfold since 2005.
For many of the most common disabilities, including migraines, depression and back pain, there is no conclusive way to determine whether a veteran is telling the truth about the severity of their symptoms. Under federal law, VA must give a veteran the benefit of the doubt and approve their claim when evidence is evenly split.
More than 1.5 million veterans held a 100 percent rating last year, double the figure from 2019 and nearly nine times as many as in 2001. Each received, on average, $49,645 in disability compensation.
Veterans categorized as 100 percent disabled often still hold normal, full-time jobs. Most have an assortment of ailments — like arthritis, diabetes, scars or a deviated septum — that by themselves are not incapacitating but that add up to a 100 percent rating under VA rules.
Sleep apnea, a breathing disorder, wasn’t identified in medical literature until mid-century. Today, sleep apnea can be treated effectively by wearing a breathing mask at night. Most people with the condition have no trouble holding a job.
Yet VA, clinging to decades-old rules, considers most veterans who are prescribed a sleep apnea mask to be 50 percent disabled. That rate entitles them to $1,102 per month in tax-free payments, more if they have dependents.
Sleep apnea is now one of VA’s most frequently claimed disabilities. Last year, 659,335 vets received compensation for it. That’s about 11 times the number who did in 2009, VA figures show.
Since 2001, for example, the number of veterans receiving compensation for migraines has multiplied by a factor of 23, from 47,000 to 1.1 million today.
The most-claimed disability by far is tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, another condition that is difficult to confirm with certainty. Last year, nearly 3.3 million veterans — more than half of those on disability — received benefits for it. By itself, tinnitus carries a 10 percent rating, which pays $176 a month, more with dependents.
Carol Ramsey, a 78-year-old Air Force veteran and physician from Colorado, said she receives about $34,000 a year in compensation for her 90 percent disability rating, mostly because she had a hysterectomy while on active duty to address a medical condition.
She said that she never considered herself disabled and that her hysterectomy didn’t affect her ability to earn a living. “I wasn’t going to put in for it,” she added, explaining that a veterans service organization advised her to submit the claim. “But it would have been foolish of me to turn down the benefit.” Still, Ramsey said she thinks it’s unfair that combat-wounded veterans receive less than her: “Nobody ever shot at me.”
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