By Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press
September 23, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) - The government is more than quadrupling monthly payments to some veterans suffering brain injuries, as the number of such war wounds mounts from the roadside bombings of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The new compensation is based on the assessment that even some troops who have the mildest form of traumatic brain injury could end up with chronic headaches, memory loss, anxiety or other symptoms that will hurt their chances of getting a job or job advancement - thus reducing their lifetime earnings by 40 percent.
In a regulation announced Tuesday by the Veterans Affairs Department, officials changed the way they evaluate the injuries. They now judge a person to be 40 percent disabled in such cases rather than 10 percent. The old lower rating was set by a 1961 regulation.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0908/092308ap2.htm
