This benefit is definitely going to present the department with problems. The criteria of 'suddenness' is going to result in some veterans receiving significantly more money than others for similar medical outcomes, because one person suffers their 'critical injury/illness' in a sudden manner whereas for someone else it develops more slowly. I know this has been brought to the attention of VAC staff at the policy making level; I'll be curious to hear once the election side show it out of the way whether this is being revisited at all. Someone who is hurt in an IED blast, by a gunshot, or in a LAV rollover is very clearly injured in a sudden enough manner, whereas someone who develops cancer over the course of a few years because of some sort of toxic exposure or who develops several back issues after years of parachute jumps is not. We will see soldiers as severely debilitated by more gradual, progressive injuries or illnesses as those who are injured or sicked much more rapidly, but only some will qualify for the benefit. We'll probably see this one go to court over something like someone who becomes ill as a result of shipboard firefighting or something like that.
Hopefully the department can reevaluate this benefit. The entire benefits package needs to be rewritten and harmonized, but the CIB 'bump to the lump' is a poorly executed plan that was meiocre to begin with.