Today U.S. Representative Dina Titus, a Ranking Member on the Veterans Affairs Committee, chaired a bi-partisan roundtable focused on how military discharge ratings can negatively impact individuals' access to veterans benefits and healthcare. Ranking Member Titus was joined by her subcommittee counterpart, Chairman Ralph Abraham (R-LA), and representatives from the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, and other members of the veterans community.
When a servicemember is discharged from the military, he/she leaves under honorable, general, other than honorable, or dishonorable conditions. Those who are discharged under honorable and general conditions generally have access to the veterans' benefits they have earned, whereas the other two discharge statuses can bar access to benefits.
"Many of these veterans may be suffering from mental illness caused by their service to their country, and access to mental care can be a life or death situation," said the Congresswoman.
DOD recently issued new official guidance in September 2014 to the Boards for Correction of Military/Naval Records (BCMNR) asking them to fully and carefully consider any petition to change an individual's discharge status when based on PTSD.
Ranking Member Titus voiced concern that other than honorable discharges could stigmatize servicemembers for decades by placing information regarding their health on their DD-214.
"While taking care of mental and physical health of veterans is the responsibility of the VA, private medical information should not be on the DD-214," Rep. Titus said.
She suggested she would be urging the Department of Defense to take further common sense steps that would increase consistency across the services and ensure passionate and measured review of upgrade requests.