Healthcare

Bill would expand care for veterans suffering from Agent Orange exposure

By Susan Crabtree
Published March 13, 2017 5:01am ET
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Bill would expand care for veterans suffering from Agent Orange exposure
During the Vietnam War, Air Force C-123 planes sprayed millions of gallons of herbicides over the jungles of Southeast Asia to destroy enemy crops and tree cover. The military stopped the spraying by early 1971, but some Air Force Reserve units continued to fly the former spray planes until the early 1980s. Some veterans who flew in those planes after the war got sick, and like many Vietnam veterans, they're blaming the herbicides they say still coated the planes for decades. (AP Photo/Department of Defense, File) | Anonymous

Fifteen years ago, the Veterans Affairs Department decided to exclude certain Navy veterans from receiving healthcare treatment related to Agent Orange, a ruling that Sen. Steve Daines is trying to change.

In 1991, Congress passed a law requiring the VA to provide coverage to Vietnam veterans with illnesses that the Institute of Medicine has directly linked to Agent Orange exposure.

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