New report of VA denying care

New report, ongoing problem for many years.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has unlawfully turned away veterans with other-than-honorable discharges for decades because of flawed training and guidance that created a "cycle of misinformation," a report released (last) Thursday found.

Rather than telling veterans with other-than-honorable discharges to fill out applications for health care, sending a written denial and informing them about their options to appeal, VA staff often rejects them on the spot, the report says. While other-than-honorable discharges, commonly known as "bad paper," can preclude veterans from some VA services, that's not always the case -- particularly with mental health care...

Veterans receive other-than-honorable discharges for a host of reasons, including serious crimes. However, service members with bad paper were, in many cases, unjustly released from the military because of infractions that stemmed from mental health issues.

The Government Accountability Office found that tens of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who were separated from the military for misconduct had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury or another mental health disorder.

Service members in the LGBT community were also given other-than-honorable discharges during the days of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," a policy that barred openly gay people from military service. When the policy was in place from 1994 to 2001, more than 100,000 service members were discharged because of their LGBT status, the OUTVETS report shows. - Military.com