If you have served in any United States military branch, you may be entitled to certain benefits. These benefits may include health care and disability benefits, among many others. Each of these benefits has requirements you must fulfill to be eligible.
This article considers the requirements for receiving healthcare and disability benefits. We will also discuss what you can do if you filed a claim and were denied.
Healthcare Benefits Requirements
Those still serving in the military enjoy free healthcare services, and their families only have to pay a token. However, Veterans do not have unconditional access – unless they served until they retired. If the Veteran soldiers served till they retired, they continue to enjoy these benefits for the rest of their lives.
To be eligible for these healthcare benefits, Veterans must have served for at least two years. Also, they must not have left the service because of a dishonorable discharge. The health benefits captured in this setup include the following:
• Health immunizations and exams
• Surgeries and other inpatient hospital care
• Organ transplants
• Intensive care for health conditions (mental or physical)
• Emergency care.
Disability Benefits Available to Veterans
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides tax-free disability compensation to eligible Veterans with service-connected health conditions. If you sustained an injury or have an illness caused or worsened by your active military service, you are eligible. The healthcare benefits are part of these disability benefits for Veterans; another type is disability compensation.
If a Veteran is eligible for disability compensation, they will receive monthly compensation payments, depending on their disability rating. Furthermore, Veterans who served during wartime and sustained a disabling injury may receive disability pensions. The requirements for being eligible for disability Veteran benefits include the following:
• You have an ongoing illness or injury that affects your body and mind sustained during active duty.
• You received the injury during active duty for training or inactive duty training
• You had an injury or illness before you joined the service, and the service made it worse
• You became injured or sick while serving in the military
• You discovered a disability you sustained while in the service, but that did not surface until after you left
Filing a Claim: What to Do if You Are Denied
These benefits do not automatically come; you must file a detailed claim with the VA to receive them. The services you are eligible for will be decided based on the VA’s discretion. Meanwhile, if you filed a claim and the VA denied it, you can request any of these three decision review options:
• Supplemental Claim: You submit new and relevant evidence you did not include in your original application.
• Higher-Level Review: This option can be your salvation when you do not have new information to supply. In this case, you can ask that someone higher up in the chain of authority consider your case.
• Board Appeal: This is the highest level, which you can request only when the lower-level appeal processes have denied your claim.
Conclusion
“Claiming Veteran benefits should be straightforward—after all, it is your right. However, it is not straightforward, involving several processes that may result in unjustly denying your appeal. Therefore, it is recommended that you hire an attorney who can help you understand the process, file a claim, or appeal a decision,” says attorney Jan Dils of Fight4Vets.