MILWAUKEE — Thursday marked one year since President Joe Biden signed the PACT Act into law, giving military veterans across Wisconsin added health benefits tied to past toxin exposure.

“Our veterans had been in some very difficult situations around the world,” said James McLain, executive director of the Milwaukee VA Medical Center. “They’d been exposed to toxins and in the past, that exposure was not considered something that would allow a veteran to come forward and submit a claim because it wasn’t necessarily something deemed to be the cause of an injury.”

McClain said after years without that coverage, it’s been a statewide effort to help Wisconsin veterans get the care they now qualify for following the PACT Act’s passage.

“[It’s] been very much a community-based effort,” McLain said. “Many of the VA hospitals — Milwaukee, Madison, Tomah — have been actively recruiting individuals to come forward to take advantage of the PACT Act.”

Veterans have until next Monday to apply and potentially qualify to have their benefits backdated to last August.

More information is available here.

Watch the full interview above.