\n<\/p>\n
The Trump administration is making it more difficult for veterans with a rare but deadly cancer to get their health care needs covered by the government. The new policy, involving breast cancer in men, is laid out in a Department of Veterans Affairs memo obtained by ProPublica.<\/p>\n
The previously undisclosed document does not cite any evolving science. Rather, it relies on an order that President Donald Trump issued on his first day in office titled: \u201cDefending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.\u201d<\/p>\n
An agency spokesperson confirmed the change.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs of Sept. 30, the department no longer presumes service connection for male breast cancer,\u201d press secretary Pete Kasperowicz wrote in a statement to ProPublica. He noted that veterans who\u2019ve previously qualified for coverage can keep it.<\/p>\n
But for the roughly 100 male veterans who are newly diagnosed each year, the path will now be significantly harder. They will have to show their cancer was connected to their military service, a burden that has often been hard to meet.<\/p>\n
Without VA coverage, experts say, veterans\u2019 care could be delayed or even missed altogether \u2014 even as research has shown the rate of breast cancer among men has been increasing and the disease is deadlier than for women. One study also found that breast cancer for men is \u201cnotably higher among veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCancer in male veterans should be covered,\u201d said Dr. Anita Aggarwal, a VA oncologist who researched and treated breast cancer for years before retiring recently. \u201cThese people have put their lives at risk for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Aggarwal noted, breast tissue in men and women are similar. \u201cMale breasts don\u2019t produce milk,\u201d Aggarwal said. \u201cBut the treatment is the same.\u201d She added that research has linked breast cancer to toxic exposure.<\/p>\n
The administration\u2019s new policy rolls back benefits that were created under the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics, or PACT, Act, a Biden-era law that ushered in one of the largest expansions of health care and benefits in VA history.<\/p>\n
After a long fight by advocates, congressional Democrats and Republicans passed the measure three years ago, making it easier for veterans poisoned by Agent Orange and other toxic substances to get benefits.<\/p>\n
Before the law, the VA had frequently been denying the claims. Now, the government would presume many ailments were connected to veterans\u2019 military service, so long as they served in particular areas and had any number of diseases on a VA list.<\/p>\n
As a result, more than 200,000 veterans likely exposed to toxic substances during their service have qualified to have their care covered.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration\u2019s change means that male veterans who get breast cancer will no longer be able to benefit from that easier path for coverage.<\/p>\n
Veterans who have breast cancer said the move left them aghast and puzzled.<\/p>\n
Jack Gelman, a 80-year-old former Navy fighter pilot who served in Vietnam, is already facing the fact that his long-dormant breast cancer came back last year. Now he has to grapple with the fact that the government has just made it harder to get his care covered.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m astonished,\u201d Gelman said repeatedly when ProPublica told him about the change. \u201cThis is really nickel and diming a very small group of people who should be taken care of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other veterans echoed that. \u201cI don\u2019t care if it\u2019s toenail cancer,\u201d said Kirby Lewis, who was diagnosed with breast cancer about a dozen years ago and is now Stage 4. \u201cIf exposure occurs, they should take care of those people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewis, who served in the Navy for five years during the 1980s, isn\u2019t worried about losing his coverage, which the VA granted him as a result of unrelated heart issues. But he said the administration\u2019s decision risks further stigmatizing men with the disease.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s this machinismo aspect that they don\u2019t want to accept that we have breasts, but we do,\u201d said Lewis, who called the decision \u201cvery upsetting.\u201d<\/p>\n
A flag, a porthole and color bars are some of the items Lewis has on display at his home from his time in the Navy.<\/span> Greg Kahn for ProPublica<\/span><\/p>\n The PACT Act gives administrations widespread discretion to cover diseases as science develops. Last year, the VA added three cancers, including male breast cancer.<\/p>\n The law states that \u201creproductive cancer of any type\u201d be covered. Officials added male breast cancer under that category after a working group of experts reviewed the science. The decision noted \u201cthe marked similarity of male and female breast cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n The Trump administration\u2019s memo argues that designation is a mistake. \u201cThe Biden Administration falsely classified male breasts as reproductive organs,\u201d Kasperowicz said in his statement to ProPublica.<\/p>\n A former official who was involved in the VA\u2019s decision last year said that while there were discussions about how to interpret \u201creproductive cancer,\u201d the scientific consensus among VA oncologists was clear. \u201cThe evidence showed that male and female breast tissue respond similarly to toxic exposures and share nearly identical biological and mutational profiles,\u201d said the former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing concern for his job prospects in government. \u201cExpanding coverage to male breast cancer was the right call.\u201d<\/p>\n Rosie Torres, who advocated for the PACT Act after her husband became sick, said the current administration is putting politics above patriotism and people. \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t matter who signed the bill,\u201d Torres said, referring to Biden. \u201cIf you don\u2019t like the \u2018reproductive\u2019 word, do it under another category. Don\u2019t remove it. These are peoples\u2019 lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Kasperowicz emphasized that veterans can still get coverage, so long as they show a connection between their illness and their service.<\/p>\n \u201cThe department grants disability benefits compensation claims for male Veterans with breast cancer on an individual basis and will continue to do so,\u201d he said in his statement. \u201cVA encourages any male Veterans with breast cancer who feel their health may have been impacted by their military service to submit a disability compensation claim.\u201d<\/p>\n The change follows a wider tumult at the VA, where tens of thousands of staffers have left amid plummeting morale and work edicts such as a return to office.<\/p>\n Secretary Doug Collins has long insisted that care will not be affected. \u201cVeterans benefits aren\u2019t getting cut,\u201d Collins said in February. \u201cIn fact, we are actually giving and improving services.\u201d<\/p>\n Advocates and Democrats say they\u2019re concerned that the rollback of presumptive coverage for male breast cancer could presage wider cuts. This year, House Republicans passed a bill to cut a fund for veterans covered under the PACT Act, which they\u2019ve criticized as lacking in oversight. The bill has not passed in the Senate.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Project 2025, the conservative initiative to create a blueprint for the Trump administration, urges officials to roll back benefits, or as the initiative puts it, to \u201ctarget significant cost savings from revising disability rating awards.\u201d<\/p>\n The Trump administration has so far not done that. ProPublica asked the VA whether there are any plans to change coverage beyond male breast cancer.<\/p>\n The department did not respond.<\/p>\n \n\tProPublica wants to hear from doctors, nurses and other front-line medical providers who recently left positions at a VA hospital or clinic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Trump administration is making it more difficult for veterans with a rare but deadly cancer to get their health care needs covered by the government. The new policy, involving breast cancer in men, is laid out in a Department of Veterans Affairs memo obtained by ProPublica. The previously undisclosed document does not cite any<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[9334,654,4430,3428,5188,247,7709],"class_list":{"0":"post-31388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-breast","9":"tag-cancer","10":"tag-coverage","11":"tag-harder","12":"tag-male","13":"tag-propublica","14":"tag-veterans"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}