Troubled veterans left without health-care benefits

Troubled veterans left without health-care benefits

More than 20,000 men and women exited the Army and Marines during the past four years with other-than-honorable discharges that can restrict their veterans health-care and disability benefits. Critics says those rules leave some troubled combat veterans struggling to find treatment and support.

By Hal Bernton
Seattle Times staff reporter
August 11, 2012

A few weeks after Jarrid Starks ended his Army service in May, he went to an office in Albany, Ore., to enroll for veterans health-care benefits.

Starks brought medical records that detailed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a twisted vertebra and a possible brain injury from concussions. Other records documented his tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, where his bravery fighting the Taliban was recognized with a Bronze Star for Valor.

None of that was enough to qualify him for health care from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

That's because Starks left the military this year with an other-than-honorable discharge — his final year of service scarred by pot smoking and taking absences without leave (AWOL).

He was told to fill out a form, then wait — possibly a year or more — while officials review his military record to determine whether he is eligible for health care.

"I was absolutely livid," Starks, 26, recalls. "This just isn't right."

Starks is among the more than 20,000 men and women who exited the Army and Marines during the past four years with other-than-honorable discharges that hamstring their access to VA health care and may strip them of disability benefits.
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This was news on this blog back in 2007.

10 discharges a day for "personality disorder"
Many soldiers get boot for 'pre-existing' mental illness
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
September 29, 2007
By Philip Dine

WASHINGTON -- Thousands of U.S. soldiers in Iraq - as many as 10 a day - are being discharged by the military for mental health reasons. But the Pentagon isn't blaming the war. It says the soldiers had "pre-existing" conditions that disqualify them for treatment by the government.

Many soldiers and Marines being discharged on this basis actually suffer from combat-related problems, experts say. But by classifying them as having a condition unrelated to the war, the Defense Department is able to quickly get rid of troops having trouble doing their work while also saving the expense of caring for them.

The result appears to be that many actually suffering from combat-related problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries don't get the help they need.

Working behind the scenes, Sens. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., have written and inserted into the defense authorization bill a provision that would make it harder for the Pentagon to discharge thousands of troops. The Post-Dispatch has learned that the measure has been accepted into the Senate defense bill and will probably become part of the Senate-House bill to be voted on this week.
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