Veterans being urged to tap health care benefit

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

When he was jumping out of fighter planes circling the jungles of Vietnam, Phil Maughan wasn’t thinking about the health issues that could await him several decades in the future. Mostly he was grateful for the substance that was clearing the jungle and making it easier to spot the enemy below.

Now the Naperville man has a new way to make sure that substance — the defoliant known as Agent Orange — still hasn’t caused him to develop cancer or another serious health concern.

Maughan and other vets came out Tuesday afternoon to learn more about the no-cost health care they may have earned through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

“I always thought because I have medical insurance and reasonable income, I couldn’t qualify,” said Maughan, 63, a retired banker. “But that isn’t the case.”

It’s a well-kept secret.

“VA is the best story never told,” said Maureen Dyman, public affairs officer for Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital. “Outreach is a big thing for us now.”

Representatives from the sprawling military health care facility came to the Naperville Township offices to share information, welcome new participants, and thank them for their service.

“My family and I are free because you served,” Hines director Sharon Helman told the small group of gathered soldiers.

In recent years, Congress has revamped the definitions of military-related disability, including more than a dozen conditions that have been linked to Agent Orange exposure, and the identification of post-traumatic stress disorder as an affliction tied to combat experiences. Those changes and others have enabled many more vets to qualify for free medical services through the VA.

And the organization has undergone its own makeover, adding electronic technology to its record keeping system and focusing on getting out and talking to people. The vets gathered Tuesday had good things to say about the service they’ve experienced.

“A lot more guys are using it now than used to,” said Ken Garhan, 77, who served in Germany from 1953 to 1956 as part of the Army of Occupation.

Still, whether they served in the Korean War days or the Vietnam era or in the Mideast campaigns that have happened since, military members don’t often have health benefits on their minds when they wrap up their time in the service and head home.

“The first thing I ask when I meet a vet is, ‘Are you signed up for veterans’ benefits?’ And I get this glazed look,” said Mike Barbour, another Vietnam vet and veterans’ and seniors’ advocate for the township.

It was Barbour who talked up the VA perk among some of his Naperville military brethren who spend time together at Judd Kendall VFW Post 3873. One of them, Phil Rains, had been encouraged to sign up by a friend who works at the VA. It didn’t get through.

“It finally took the VFW to kick me in the pants,” said Rains, 64, who works in data security and privacy for IBM. “You get close to retirement and you start to think you can’t have too much health insurance.”

Still, misconceptions surround the program. Not everyone is entitled to the free medical services, but many vets think they have to have sustained injury in battle to receive subsequent care at no cost. Others believe they aren’t eligible because they never saw combat. And some think they’ll be depriving another vet of more-deserved medical attention if they take up the offer. None of those presumptions is necessarily true, the Hines representatives said.

Helman said the value of vet-to-vet endorsement is huge, but she and her staff are still making a push to get the word out. They’ll be taking part in Naperville’s Memorial Day parade in an effort to sign up more vets.

“We’re trying to reach guys who were discharged 35, 40 years ago,” she said.

Even among those who are sold on it, not everybody thinks they need the military-provided health care — at least, not yet. Garhan, who worked for 35 years as a letter carrier in Naperville, knows he might get old someday and appreciates having a safety net.

“Because of my income, I don’t need to go (to Hines),” he said. “But it’s good to be in the system.”