Ministers: Step Denying Benefits to Vets with Pre-existing Conditions Excuse

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) under the leadership of the George W. Bush administration looks a lot like a health insurance company with a lot of coverage exclusions on their policies.

A piece in The Nation by Joshua Kors from last spring describes the policy.

In sum, a U.S. Army vet is shafted by the VA because of a pre-existing condition.

In the Army's separations manual it's called Regulation 635-200, Chapter 5-13: "Separation Because of Personality Disorder." It's an alluring choice for a cash-strapped military because enacting it is quick and cheap. The Department of Veterans Affairs doesn't have to provide medical care to soldiers dismissed with personality disorder. That's because under Chapter 5-13, personality disorder is a pre-existing condition. The VA is only required to treat wounds sustained during service.

An Veterans' e-mail making the rounds note a resolution for federal legislation reversing the veterans' pre-existing condition exclusion:

I thought you might want to pass the following on to your veterans' list.

- U.S. Senate Members
- U.S. House Members

The next step is to get Senators and Representatives to enact a law abolishing Regulation 635-200, Chapter 5-13.

What follows is a resolution passed by the International Conference of War Veteran Ministers ... that gives a really awful instance of how the military has treated combat veterans with contempt.

Separations Based on Pre-Existing Personality Disorders - A Peace and Justice Statement October 31, 2007.

The International Conference of War Veteran Ministers, meeting in Lantana, Florida, October 29 to November 2, 2007, and after prayerful reflection, adopted the following resolution concerning Separations Based on Pre-Existing Personality Disorders.

We are deeply troubled by instances of war veterans being separated from their military and being denied health care and other benefits required by their physical and psychological wounds on the ground that they were suffering from pre-existing personality disorders.

In the United States, this results from Regulation 635-200, Chapter 5-13, "Separation Because of Personality Disorder." In other nations' services there maybe parallel regulations. The underlying concept is that the military should treat only wounds sustained in war; personality disorders which existed prior to military service should not be their responsibility.

In fact, it is very likely military service under combat conditions will lead to post-traumatic stress disorder and other diagnoses, some of whose symptoms may be similar to the symptoms of personality disorders.

Furthermore, combat stress may aggravate other conditions.

Distinguishing what results from military service and what results from pre-existing conditions is largely impossible. This is especially so given that a person accepted into active military service has already received a thorough examination and been determined by competent authority to have no conditions that would interfere with military service.

Simple justice demands that governments recognize the logical impossibility of pre-existing conditions among those who have been certified fit to fight.

We call upon governments to cease all discharges attributed to pre-existing conditions, and cease denying benefits to combat veterans based on such logic.

In the United States, we call for cessation of Chapter 5-13 separations retroactive to the start of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts and provision of benefits to veterans so affected.

- U.S. Senate Members

- U.S. House Members

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