5.21.2024 – Senator Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has announced The PACT Act has delivered care to 31,945 Ohio Veterans and to one million Veterans across the country.

The bill has been available to more veterans than originally intended. Earlier this year, The PACT Act extended its eligibility for presumptive health care to Veterans who were exposed to toxins and to Veterans of the Vietnam, Gulf War and post-9/11 eras. In addition, it has added more than 20p conditions and locations for burn pits, Agent Orange and other exposures.

Veterans can apply for health care benefits through The PACT Act via va.gov/pact.

Starting March 5, 2024, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is expanding VA health care benefits to millions of Veterans—years earlier than called for by the PACT Act.

With this expansion, VA can care for all Veterans who served in the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Global War on Terror, or any other combat zone after 9/11. All of these Veterans are now presumed to have been exposed to toxic burn pits, thanks to the PACT Act. The timeframe for this expansion of benefits was scheduled for eight years prior originally intended.

The VA will care for Veterans who never deployed, but were exposed to toxins or hazards while training or on active duty here at home – by working with chemicals, pesticides, lead, asbestos, certain paints, nuclear weapons, x-rays, and more. A full list of military exposure categories is available on the VA’s public health website.

This eligibility is IRRESPECTIVE OF WHETHER VETERANS HAVE CONDITIONS RELATED TO THEIR SERVICE. This is key— now Veterans can have health care access with the VA to PREVENT the incidence of disease; not just treat disease when Veterans are already sick.

Since the passage of the PACT Act in 2022, more than 1.4 million related claims have been filed providing for thousands of Veterans and their survivors to receive related benefits. The PACT Act continues to add presumptive cancers and illnesses to the list and provides survivor benefits – again, please visit the VA’s public health website.

To print out The PACT Act and Your VA benefits information, please visit here.

To print out the Veterans bills in Congress that Republicans blocked, please visit here.