SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4) — Anyone who has ever filed a medical claim knows how frustrating it can be. Compound that with chronic illnesses incurred while working can cause more frustration and even heartache.

This is a scenario known too well by many of our U.S. Military men and women, veterans who have voluntarily given their time and lives to provide our freedoms.

The PACT Act, signed into effect by President Joe Biden, is changing the lives of many of the veterans who have been impacted adversely because of their service.

Ivette Orozco, an Outreach Program VSO Manager with the Utah Department of Veterans and Military Affairs, said she is grateful for the act and thinks it is a great step forward in helping individuals get the care they need when they get home and have illnesses and exposures that need treatment.

“It is really critical we provide relief and care to our vets,” Orozco said. “I am grateful to everyone who helped make this happen.”

Orozco herself is a veteran, spending 28 years serving in the Army. Her husband is also a veteran and her daughter just joined the army. She sees the PACT Act as a personal win for every veteran past and future.

She enjoyed President Biden’s speech this afternoon and said she knows this is a personal victory for him as well, after the death of his son who was a military veteran.

“It tugged at his heart, you could tell,” she said.

Veterans in Utah can reach out to the Utah Department of Veterans in Military Affairs for help with numerous benefits and services. This includes preparing and securing claims for compensation, hospitalization, education, vocational training, and other benefits or privileges that Veterans and our current armed forces have earned through their military service.