I’m a veteran. Our VA benefits system needs to modernize | Opinion

If you are a veteran with a disability rating, you might be hearing from a veterans service organization, or even the pages of this paper, that your disability benefits are on the chopping block.

Kansas City’s estimated 65,000 disabled veterans will read these reports in fear, as they are led to believe Congress wants to save a few bucks at their expense.

But let me set a few things straight.

First and foremost, the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act, introduced by Kansas’ own Sen. Jerry Moran, would take giant steps toward giving veterans more control over their healthcare decisions. This is a comprehensive package that includes long-stalled legislation meant to innovate at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, streamline access to mental health care, codify access standards for community care so veterans can seek the care they need when and where they need it, and other reforms that put veterans at the center of care.

If passed and signed, this bill would be the most meaningful reform for veterans like me in nearly 10 years. Stalling these comprehensive and bipartisan reforms would be irresponsible and a betrayal to veterans.

Second, this bill does not put Congress in the role of decision-maker about how disabled a veteran is. What Section 108 in this bill does is write into law the updated ratings criteria the VA was already planning to implement. The VA does these kinds of evaluations and updates to ratings all the time, and bases changes on the most updated medical knowledge it has.

Further, those changes do not apply to current ratings. Veterans with a disability rating for tinnitus or sleep apnea would not see a change in their rating because of this bill. Just take a look at the bill’s language:

“The revisions to the schedule for rating disabilities made pursuant to this section may not serve as the basis for reducing, discontinuing, or otherwise adversely affecting compensation that was in effect on the day before the date of the enactment of this Act.”

Modern medicine demands ratings

We can all agree Congress struggles to do its own job, especially when it comes to constant government shutdowns and partisan bickering that slow down real work and reforms. And yes, the claims system is still mired in delays and frustration. There is work to be done.

But disability compensation is taxpayer funded, and Congress is accountable to those taxpayers. It is literally their job to oversee how taxpayer dollars are spent. Those dollars are there to help and support those with true, service-connected disabilities. And it is fully within the VA’s purview, as the administrator of compensation, to review and update medical criteria and adjust rating scores accordingly.

Refusing to assess ratings when modern medicine and treatments demand it is unfair to the American people, veterans included, not to mention irresponsible use of taxpayer dollars.

The core issue here is in how we as a nation view our veterans. We’ve come a long way from the shameful behavior toward returning Vietnam veterans. The post-9/11 war era is one in which service members know the country has our backs and wants to care for us.

But we are not victims. True service-connected disabilities will stand the evaluation of new criteria based on modern medical knowledge. It does us, the veterans, a disservice to protect our disability paychecks from any kind of question or scrutiny.

The current disability system is based on archaic criteria, largely instituted before an influx of warriors from 21st century wars. We don’t experience some of the older injuries or conditions, but have a whole new set of our own, unique conditions. The disability ratings system should continue adapting right along with our wars, technology, and ability to recover, not stay stuck in the last century. The compensation system should incentivize progress, modernization, and healing.

The point of the VA is to make veterans well, not to perpetuate a system where treatable conditions become permanent disabilities.

I’m a combat veteran of the United States Marine Corps and Army National Guard. I have suffered injuries and life-long conditions because of my service. I expect my country to take care of those injuries, but I do not expect the VA to blindly hand over a check with ratings determined by outdated medical knowledge.

The Take Care of America’s Veterans Act is veteran-centric and puts us in the driver’s seat of care. Nobody is getting everything they want from it, but to stand in its way at this point is to tell veterans who need access to care that they will just have to keep waiting. If they have that long.

John Byrnes is the strategic director at the 501(c)(4) nonprofit Concerned Veterans for America and a combat veteran of the Marine Corps and Army National Guard.

This story was originally published July 16, 2026 at 1:57 PM with the headline "I’m a veteran. Our VA benefits system needs to modernize | Opinion."