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Veteran Benefits All Disabled Veterans Qualify For - YouTube
Channel: Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick LTD
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[Music]
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hi everybody
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and welcome to another edition of cck
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live
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today we're going to be talking about va
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benefits that all
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disabled veterans qualify for so i think
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a lot of people will know
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that you know when you are service
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connected and you get a particular
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rating you're going to get a certain
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amount of
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money per month but we want to cover
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some of the topics
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that maybe people don't know as much
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about other benefits that are there
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on the table for you to take advantage
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of that you should take advantage of if
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you need them and if you want them
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so before we get jump and jump into the
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substance of this
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my name is christian mccarnigan today i
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am joined with
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uh joined by elise phillips and lindy
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nash
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um and so you know
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one of the things that we're going to
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keep talking about in this segment is
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more detail that we have on our blogs
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and on our website because
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um there are a lot of rules to these
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we're going to go over most of them
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but you know the most detail um that
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you're going to find
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are on those other postings that are
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available to you
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so and then just one quick caveat
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we have a whole other um cck live
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on what other benefits are available for
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veterans who are rated at a hundred
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percent
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um today we're going to focus on
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benefits that are available to veterans
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when they're just service connected
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really even at a non-compensable rating
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so let's jump right in um lindy why
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don't you talk a little bit about va
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healthcare
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sure so va healthcare first of all just
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to give you
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a little bit of background information
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the veterans health administration
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otherwise known as the vha is the
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largest integrated healthcare system in
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the united states so it's really massive
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it provides care at over 1200 healthcare
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facilities
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and helps over 9 million veterans so
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it's really expansive and
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there's many different facilities across
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the country
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one of the great things about these
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healthcare centers is that they employ
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people called patient advocates and
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sometimes i tell my clients if you have
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any questions about
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your health care or whether you know one
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of the things we're going to talk about
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today are
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hearing aids or vision disability
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benefits or dental care
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if you have questions about that the
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patient advocate is a really great
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person to go to
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at the medical center they're highly
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trained professionals who can help
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with any concerns you have regarding
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health care and can answer any questions
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for you
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uh regarding those specific things
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excuse me those specific things
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so that's one thing to point out um but
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the big question here that you're
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probably asking is
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am i eligible for va healthcare what
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allows me
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to take part in this healthcare system
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so one of the key factors
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is your discharge if you did not receive
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a dishonorable discharge and you have
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some sort of disability rating whether
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it's zero percent or
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50 you know it doesn't matter as long as
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you have some sort of rating um you can
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likely qualify for va healthcare
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and even if you aren't rated for
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anything um you should still get in
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touch with them because you still might
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be qualified uh depending on some other
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factors
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but that big kind of first initial thing
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should be looking at your discharge
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and as long as you did not receive a
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dishonorable discharge
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you should be eligible but there are
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some other kind of
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smaller requirements to look into as
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well so if you enlisted after
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september 7th 1980 or you entered active
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duty
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after october 16 1981 there is a
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continuous
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service requirement so you must have
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served 24 continuous months
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or the full period for which you were
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called to active duty so there is that
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one kind of time period requirement
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however
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just to make things extra complicated
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you don't always need to hit that
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continuous
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monthly requirement if you first of all
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were discharged for a disability that
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was caused or made worse by your service
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you were discharged for a hardship or
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early out
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or you served prior to night excuse me
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september 7
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1980. so if you have any of those uh
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situations you don't need to
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hit that continuous monthly that 24
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month
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requirement um so yeah that's a little
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bit of
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general background should i get into the
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priority groups christian
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yeah i think that makes sense maybe just
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a quick overview because if i were a
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veteran and i was assigned a priority
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group
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i probably wouldn't know what that meant
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so maybe to give people some context or
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at least where to start about
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understanding that
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definitely so it's important when we're
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talking about va healthcare
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to explain the priority groups so va
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assigns each veteran a priority group
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when they apply for healthcare
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uh it would be a number system it's one
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out of eight so you would be assigned
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either number one two three four five
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six seven or eight and that would be
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your priority group
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um this system helps to make sure that
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veterans who are really in immediate
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need and have a serious
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you know disability going on or really
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need that immediate care
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are seen quickly and efficiently so the
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priority group that um
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you are assigned may affect how soon
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you're signed up for benefits and also
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how much
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if anything you'll have to pay toward
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the cost of care
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what you said one through eight right
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yes and so although one is the lowest
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number yes
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that's the highest priority group
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correct yes yep if you're given a
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priority group
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one assignment that would mean you are
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in the most immediate need for care and
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you should be treated
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uh first you know before someone who's
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in priority group
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uh six or seven okay great well thank
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you very much lindy anything to add
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before we
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move on to elise and vision benefits i
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was just gonna mention that
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um again you should really check out our
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blog
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cckdashlaw.com because we have some
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awesome graphics
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that lay out what each priority group
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means how you fall into each group
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and they're just really helpful i'm a
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visual person and i really
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it helped me understand the priority
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groups just by looking at these really
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great graphics that we have
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to explain what the groups really mean
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so i would suggest going there
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and checking it out all right so we just
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went over healthcare
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in a lease a lot of veterans who qualify
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for va healthcare
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also can get a portion or all of their
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vision care
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through the va right correct so um but
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as you just said
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uh basically everything that lindy just
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covered if you qualify for those things
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you're most likely
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going to be able to qualify for some
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type of vision benefits
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whether it's you know complete coverage
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or just partial um that's going to
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depend on your
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your circumstances but what vision
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benefits really means and what that
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covers is going to be your routine eye
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exams
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so when you go to the eye doctor and
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they test your vision but also
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preventative testing such as a glaucoma
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test
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um whether eye glasses are covered is a
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is slightly different than just an exam
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um
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so eyeglasses are covered for veterans
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that have compensable readings
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but veterans that don't have compensable
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readings can still get coverage for i
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classes if they fit into certain
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categories
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there's a lot of categories and we have
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them all listed on our blog so i'm not
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going to go through them all just
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because there are a lot but i will give
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you guys some examples
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um for example if you're a former
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prisoner of war
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um if you are awarded a purple heart
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if you are receiving benefits under um
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38 u.s code 1151
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um or if you have received increased
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pension based on being permanently house
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bound or in need of regular aid in
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attendance those are all examples of
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ways somebody might be
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qualified to have their eyeglasses
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covered um
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if they don't have a compensable reading
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like i said if you have a compensable
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rating or 10
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or above you're gonna get um those
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glasses covered so if you have a zero
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but you rewarded a purple heart
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i'm not exactly sure how that would work
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but i'm assuming it's certainly possible
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it's unlikely um then your eyeglasses
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are going to be covered
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but if you have a 10 your eyeglasses are
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covered right
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great and so unfortunately another
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uh disability that we see very
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frequently in our practice
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um are you know autological disabilities
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hearing disabilities
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um you know a lot of these hearing
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disabilities happen for a variety of
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reasons but most it's
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at least that i've seen in my practice
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is going to be exposure to noise
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so certain veterans qualify for hearing
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aids that are paid by va and again
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you're gonna have to bear with us we are
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listing and making a lot of lists here
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but um
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we just want you to be aware of the
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information so you can know
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basically whether or not you qualify and
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then dig into it a little bit more
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and contact va about it so again
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veterans with any compensable service
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connected disability
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so that's a 10 or more wouldn't be
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a zero or non-compensable and a lot of
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the qualifications are mostly the same
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as vision benefits so i'm not going to
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get into all the specifics
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and then there are a lot of ways that
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you can potentially qualify for hearing
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aids and i'm not going to bore you with
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an exhaustive list so we highly
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recommend
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that you check out va's website for more
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information
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but so there's always a little bit of a
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but in va if the hearing aids are
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recommended
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by the audio audio audiology and speech
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pathology clinic that was easy for me to
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say
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the hearing aids themselves the repairs
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future batteries will be at no cost to
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you as long as you maintain your
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eligibility
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so that's an important thing to to
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recognize and
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you can request new batteries via the
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mail
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over the phone or via the ebenefits page
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so in order to get hearing aids through
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va you're going to have to
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register at the health administration
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enrollment section
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of um a va medical center and so you can
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do that in person
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um you can do it by filling out form
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10-10 ez
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there's always a form we're still in va
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uh
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again um and then by or by
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mailing that form directly to the
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medical centers of your choice
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and so those are a couple of the ways
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that you can be entitled to
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get hearing aids to help with your
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hearing loss from va
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all right so we've done healthcare we've
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done
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vision we have done hearing aids
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and there's sort of like one big
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subsection in terms of
[644]
health benefits that are sort of left
[646]
linda you want to talk to us a little
[648]
bit about dental care
[649]
yeah definitely so this is a question we
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get all the time from our clients
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seeking dental care with the va and
[655]
whether or not they qualify
[657]
unfortunately qualifying for dental care
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can be difficult the requirements are
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pretty strict and sometimes tough to
[664]
achieve
[665]
i won't go through all of them but for
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example you may need to have a
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service-connected dental disability or
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condition
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or be a former prisoner of war to
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qualify for any needed dental care and
[675]
there are some other
[677]
requirements as well but those are kind
[678]
of just to give you an example of
[680]
how difficult it is to get dental care
[682]
but
[683]
we wanted to bring to your attention
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that there's an alternative insurance
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option available to veterans with any
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disability rating
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you don't need to be rated at 100 um you
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can have a zero percent rating and still
[694]
qualify for this alternative insurance
[696]
option uh you just need to be enrolled
[698]
in va healthcare or
[699]
your dependents need to be in champ va
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the alternative option to va dental care
[704]
is called the va
[705]
dental insurance program so v-a-d-i-p
[709]
v-a-dip but basically va
[713]
dip is a program that offers discounted
[716]
private dental insurance
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for veterans and your family members who
[719]
meet certain requirements uh it's much
[721]
more accessible
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again you don't need to have a
[723]
service-connected dental condition you
[725]
don't need to be a former prisoner of
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war
[727]
you don't need to have a 100 rating
[729]
there are no requirements
[731]
like that it's much more accessible and
[733]
it's a standard va
[734]
dental benefits plan uh which you know
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it's just easier to achieve
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so i sort of think about that like a
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private company's
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allowing you to buy dental insurance
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through their policy right you pay a
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little bit
[747]
and it helps you get excuse me
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discounted treatments and maybe some
[750]
money towards
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um any of those more serious uh teeth
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problems
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yeah yep exactly so a va
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dip or va dip plan covers many common
[761]
dental procedures such as
[762]
diagnostic services preventative care
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root canals dental surgery any emergency
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dental care
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which is really fantastic so don't give
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up hope just yet with dental care if you
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don't hit those
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certain requirements you should
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definitely check out this other
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insurance provider
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all right great and so um another
[781]
benefit that
[782]
is afforded to veterans can be life
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insurance
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so we're sort of moving away from sort
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of what you standard standard think
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about health care taking care of your
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body
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um so at least you want to talk about
[794]
life insurance a little bit
[795]
yeah so there's a certain um life
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insurance plan that's called the service
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disabled veterans life insurance
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or sdbi uh which is basically a low
[806]
cost life insurance that's eligible to
[808]
veterans
[810]
in order to qualify you need to have
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been released from active duty on or
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after
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april 25th 1951 um and have not
[819]
been uh or have not been discharged
[822]
dishonorably
[823]
um so any discharge other than
[825]
dishonorable will qualify you
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um you need to have at least
[831]
one service connected disability it does
[833]
not need to be compensable so what that
[835]
means is it can be a zero
[837]
percent combined rating um
[840]
and you can still qualify for this plan
[842]
uh
[843]
when you uh do uh you know
[847]
pick up this life insurance plan you
[848]
need to be in good health
[850]
except for any service connected
[852]
conditions so you might not be in good
[854]
health because of service connected
[855]
conditions but so long as there's not
[857]
something that's not service connected
[859]
that would qualify you is not in good
[860]
health which um
[862]
that that seems like it might be a
[864]
little bit of a
[866]
a vague term but um so long as you don't
[869]
have something maybe like cancer that's
[871]
not service connected
[872]
you can qualify uh for this this life
[875]
insurance plan
[876]
and if the cancer service connected
[878]
again you can also still
[880]
qualify uh you also need to apply within
[882]
two years of the date which you're
[884]
granted your new service connected
[885]
disability so that's important to keep
[887]
in mind
[887]
if you do want to pick up this plan um
[890]
and you get a new service connected
[891]
disability
[892]
you do have a time a deadline attached
[894]
to that
[895]
great thanks elise and then
[898]
va i think is also known for this but
[901]
there are burial benefits that are
[903]
available to
[904]
um to veterans uh specifically for
[907]
veterans who did not receive
[909]
a dishonorable discharge if that's the
[911]
case you can qualify
[913]
for a grave site at one of va's
[916]
national cemeteries with available space
[919]
opening and closing of the grave and so
[922]
this is all very specific
[924]
but sort of just to give you the sense
[926]
of
[927]
how what costs of the funeral in the
[929]
burial va will
[930]
um uh pay for it's also outlined on
[934]
va's burial uh benefits website very
[937]
clearly
[938]
burial liner headstone or mark marker
[942]
ongoing care of the grave these are all
[944]
things that va
[946]
would pay for it's also possible to be
[948]
reimbursed for some of the funeral
[950]
expenses
[951]
for burial costs with the veterans with
[953]
the disability rating
[954]
if certain other requirements are met
[956]
again
[958]
we're trying to avoid lists on lists on
[960]
lists here so
[961]
going to the va's website would be the
[964]
best way to find out
[965]
what those exact requirements are and
[969]
the amount eligible for reimbursement
[972]
really depends on
[975]
the veteran situation and the
[977]
unfortunate cause of death
[980]
and you know some burial expenses are
[983]
reimbursed um for a veteran whose death
[986]
wasn't caused by service
[988]
a higher amount if the veteran was
[989]
hospitalized at the time of death
[991]
and highest amount if the veteran's
[994]
death was unfortunately due to
[995]
service-connected conditions
[997]
and again we just point you to va's
[999]
website for the specific
[1001]
specific dollar amounts and other
[1002]
eligibility requirements but we just
[1004]
want you to be aware that that's out
[1005]
there
[1006]
and something that you can take
[1007]
advantage of if you want
[1010]
and so as we typically do um on cck live
[1014]
before we're wrapping up
[1015]
are there any closing thoughts that you
[1017]
elise or lindy would like to add before
[1019]
we wrap up here today
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um i think that this is an important
[1023]
topic because
[1024]
a lot of times in veterans law we are so
[1026]
focused on that compensable rating and
[1028]
getting a higher rating but
[1030]
um this is a reminder that even if you
[1032]
don't have a compensable rating you
[1034]
still are entitled to benefits through
[1035]
the va
[1036]
um they're not necessarily super easy to
[1039]
understand
[1040]
so we obviously encourage you to look
[1042]
into your specific situation but
[1044]
um it's not only only about being that
[1047]
compensable rating sometimes there's
[1049]
other things that can attach to being
[1050]
service connected and i would just say
[1052]
that
[1052]
um as you may have picked up on a lot of
[1056]
these different areas
[1057]
and benefits do require you to have not
[1060]
received a dishonorable discharge so if
[1062]
you did receive a dishonorable discharge
[1064]
there are ways um to fight that
[1066]
and if you look at va's website they
[1068]
have resources for you there so if you
[1070]
think that
[1071]
that discharge was incorrect or there's
[1073]
something in error there
[1075]
i would encourage you to try to get that
[1077]
fixed so that you are able to get one of
[1079]
these benefits for you
[1080]
and then the one other thing is that i
[1082]
mentioned it in the beginning but
[1083]
definitely utilize the patient advocate
[1085]
at the va medical centers they can be
[1088]
really helpful if you have questions
[1089]
about your hearing aids or dental care
[1091]
or vision or whether you even are
[1093]
eligible
[1094]
they're a really great resource for you
[1095]
so i would suggest that you reach out to
[1097]
them for more information
[1098]
yeah and i'll just close by saying in
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addition to these benefits from va
[1102]
there are also a lot of state benefits
[1103]
benefits excuse me that are available to
[1105]
veterans
[1106]
so check out lots of states have
[1108]
veterans benefit specific
[1110]
websites um within their state website
[1113]
so definitely check those out and see if
[1114]
there's anything else
[1115]
available to you so thank you very much
[1118]
elise and lindy
[1119]
and thank you for joining us that's it
[1120]
for us today
[1122]
[Music]
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you
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