The Biden-Harris Administration Presumptive Links Several Cancers to Veterans' Service for Easier Access to Health Care and Benefits

WASHINGTON — Today, in a step that builds on the Biden-Harris Administration’s focus to fulfill the nation’s sacred obligation to the nation’s Veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs

announced that it is making acute and chronic leukemias, multiple myelomas, myelodysplastic syndromes, myelofibrosis, urinary bladder, ureter, and related genitourinary cancers presumptive

for service-connection for:

This step lowers the burden of proof for these Veterans, meaning that they do not need to prove that their service caused their condition to receive benefits for it. Instead, VA

automatically assumes service connection for the condition and provides benefits accordingly. Additionally, when a Veteran becomes service connected for a health condition, it gives them

access to free health care for that condition. The presumptions for urinary bladder, ureter, and related genitourinary cancers went into effect Jan. 2, 2025, and the presumptions for acute

and chronic leukemias, multiple myelomas, and myelodysplastic syndromes, myelofibrosis will be effective Jan. 10, 2025.

This expansion is part of a comprehensive, yearslong effort by VA and the entire Biden-Harris Administration to expand access to benefits for Veterans as part of President Biden’s Unity

Agenda for the nation. In 2022, President Biden signed the PACT Act into law — the largest expansion of Veteran benefits in generations. VA then made millions of Veterans eligible for health

care and benefits years earlier than called for by the law and launched the largest outreach campaign in VA history to encourage Veterans to apply. As a result, VA is currently delivering

more care and more benefits to more Veterans than ever before — and earning Veteran trust at record rates.

“At VA, our goal is to provide every Veteran with the care and benefits that they’ve earned for their service to our nation — and that’s what this is all about,” said VA Secretary Denis

McDonough. “Adding these presumptives lowers the burden of proof for Veterans to get the benefits they deserve for the conditions that followed them home from war. We encourage Veterans with

these conditions — and all Veterans — to apply today for the benefits they deserve today.”

Since the PACT Act was signed into law, VA has conducted the largest outreach campaign in VA history to ensure that Veterans are signing up for the care and benefits they are newly eligible

for. As a result of this effort, nearly 890,000 Veterans have signed up for VA care since the bill was signed into law (a nearly 40% increase over the previous equivalent period) and

Veterans have submitted more than 4.8 million applications for VA benefits (an 42% increase over the previous equivalent period and an all-time record). In total, more than 1.3 million

Veterans have enrolled in VA health care since President Biden took office in 2021, and VA has delivered more than $600 billion in earned benefits directly to Veterans, their families, and

survivors during that time.

In addition to supporting all Veterans who served during the Gulf War, Iraq War, and Afghanistan War, these steps are also a part of a comprehensive effort VA is undertaking to listen to

Veterans who served at the Karshi-Khanabad base and ensure that VA is providing them — and their survivors — with the care and benefits they deserve. Partly as a result of these efforts, K2

Veterans have higher claim and approval rates than any other cohort of Veterans: 13,002 K2 Veterans of the approximately 16,000 known K2 Veterans are currently enrolled in VA health care,

more than 11,800 are service connected for at least one condition, the average K2 Veteran is service connected for 14.6 conditions at a 70% disability rating, and the average

service-connected K2 Veteran receives an average of $30,000 a year in earned benefits. VA continues to work to ensure that all K2 Veterans get access to the benefits they deserve.