Injured Combat Veterans Are Being Stripped of Their Medical Benefits

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http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/02/injured-combat-veterans-are-being-stripped-of-their-medical-benefits/284120/

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A powerful series in The Gazette, a newspaper in Colorado Springs, Colorado, exposes the shameful mistreatment of some U.S. veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan. These soldiers suffered traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder. As their tours abroad ended, they returned to bases in the U.S., where their injuries affected their ability to maintain discipline. They committed small infractions. Over time, these demerits added up. They were discharged for misconduct.

As a result, they lost their medical benefits for life.

Unable to afford treatment for the combat injuries they sustained, many wound up taking on debt in emergency rooms or living on the street without any treatment at all.

Their plight is a moral outrage and a public health disaster. The newspaper persuasively argues that more soldiers are being discharged for misconduct than at any time in recent history, and that combat veterans are most likely to be affected. "A Gazette investigation based on data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act shows the annual number of misconduct discharges is up more than 25 percent Army-wide since 2009, mirroring the rise in wounded," the newspaper reports. "At the eight Army posts that house most of the service's combat units, including Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, misconduct discharges have surged 67 percent. All told, more than 76,000 soldiers have been kicked out of the Army since 2006."

The fate of those soldiers? They end up "in hospitals and homeless shelters, abandoned trailers and ratty apartments, working in gas fields and at the McDonald's counter. The Army does not track how many... were kicked out with combat wounds."

[MannyGoldstein]

1. "The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice."

- Benjamin Franklin

[xchrom]

3. +1

[Ilsa]

2. Our nation has violated the sacred trust

with our veterans. This is shameful.

[newfie11]

4. Use them and throw them away

Great country!

[Sunlei]

5. 76,000 soldiers kicked out with nothing? Once the military accepts them past basic training...

these Vets should be supported for life.

[Auntie Bush]

6. This is horrible and totally unfair...but at least they can get ACA if they can afford it.

At least their medical conditions can be paid for.

[jtuck004]

8. Lol. Yeah, I bet they are all gathered around the computer at the homeless shelter discussing

options in the various plans, going online to pay their payments, maybe play some Angry Birds or something.

And if they are not in a shelter they may well be truly screwed. Those lines for jobs are not employers lining up for veterans with misconduct-related discharges. Consequently many of them die on the street, in emergency rooms, in jail, alone.

Most get nothing. Hard to even get a subsidized plan when you are homeless and hungry, and at that point probably don't really care. It's pathetic that they are asked to.

[cherokeeprogressive]

9. Yeah, thank goodness for ACA.

[Scalded Nun]

7. This is nothing new

As horrible as this is, this is standard practice within the military. It happens much more during peacetime or when we are winding down from conflicts. You should see some of the stuff they pull out of the bag when they do not want you around anymore. 5/10-year old missed dental appointment, 15-year old counseling statement...it all folds in to a 'pattern of behavior', which is the key for dumping the unwanted.

It also works great for dumping those who will cost you money down the road (health/psychiatric care, etc.).

Shameful behavior that has existed for many decades.

[madokie]

10. As a Vietnam Vet

I can attest to the fact that way more come home wounded than the kind of wounds that draw blood shows. We were just cast to the wolves, in my war that's the way it was done, same as for our brave ones in today's Wars.

If it wasn't the government doing it it would be considered criminal, not real sure it isn't even then, when it comes right down to it