Dana Montalto, attorney and clinical instructor in LSC’s Veterans Legal Clinic, recently penned an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times outlining how the VA has unjustly barred thousands of veterans with other than honorable discharges from accessing healthcare.
A veteran with a fever and hacking cough that suggest a possible coronavirus infection tries to make a doctor’s appointment, only to be turned away by a receptionist who personally decides the would-be patient can’t see a physician.
A former service member and sexual assault survivor at risk of suicide is denied access to mental health services by a bureaucratic gatekeeper stationed at the therapist’s front desk.
These are two of thousands of examples of veterans seeking the Veterans Affairs healthcare they’re legally entitled to — and being wrongly refused it. This is due to a pervasive misunderstanding, and misapplication, of the rules regarding other-than-honorable discharges.