PACT Act Toxic Exposure Care and Benefits

The Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act of 2022 is the largest expansion of VA health care and benefits in decades. It added more than 20 presumptive conditions for burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxic exposures, added presumptive locations for Agent Orange and radiation, and requires VA to offer a toxic exposure screening to every enrolled veteran. A presumptive condition means VA assumes service caused it. A veteran who served in a covered place and period and has the condition does not have to prove the link. Covered service includes the Gulf War and post-9/11 deployments to the Southwest Asia theater, Afghanistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Uzbekistan and Yemen, and Agent Orange service in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Guam, American Samoa and Johnston Atoll in the periods the law sets. Health care: since March 5, 2024, VA lets any veteran who was exposed to toxins or other hazards in service enroll directly, without first applying for disability benefits, if they meet the basic service and discharge requirements. That is years earlier than the phase-in the law itself set. Survivors of a veteran who died from a presumptive condition may now qualify for DIC.