OPINION:
Our nation’s veterans are being forced into a cruel catch-22 by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The VA evaluates musculoskeletal disabilities based on a veteran’s functional ability while on medication. This policy creates a perverse incentive: Veterans must choose between managing their pain and receiving a disability rating that accurately reflects the true severity of their service-connected injuries.
In Ingram v. Collins, 2025, the principle was established that the VA should evaluate a claimant’s disability in its natural, unmedicated state. Yet the VA continues to ignore this standard. Veterans who want to improve their quality of life are effectively penalized for doing so.
If they take medication to remain functional, then their rating and their compensation are slashed.
The VA’s primary defense is administrative. It claims that a shift in standards would create a massive backlog of reevaluations. Yet “too much paperwork” is a hollow excuse for denying justice.
Furthermore, the system ignores the often-severe side effects of the very medications used to lower these ratings.
Compensation should be based on the disability’s impact without medical intervention. By adopting this standard, the VA would finally encourage veterans to seek the treatment they need rather than forcing them to suffer in silence just to secure the benefits they have earned.
We owe them a system that rewards recovery, not one that compensates based on a medicated mask.
TOM HENION
Stafford, Virginia
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