Kamala Harris Courts Veteran Vote With Plan That Would Expand Their Access To Health Care

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said that, if she is elected president, by the end of her first term the VA would expand access to health care and housing assistance to the more than 500,000 veterans with other-than-honorable discharges. "People with PTSD tend to act out. They tend to self-medicate. Which means they're going to be on drugs or they may be an alcoholic. And then they're going to get into fights and they have a really short fuse. And guess what happens? All of a sudden you don't qualify for VA," Harris said.

The Hill: Harris Unveils Plan To Offer Health Care, Housing Assistance To Over 500K Veterans

White House hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) on Saturday unveiled a new plan to expand veterans’ access to health care and provide housing assistance to over half a million former service members. ...The California Democrat said that if she is elected, by the end of her first term, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) would expand access to health care and housing assistance through the agency to the more than 500,000 veterans with other-than-honorable discharges. (Axelrod, 9/7)

CNN: Harris Releases Plan To Give VA Benefits To Veterans With Less-Than-Honorable Discharges And Reverse Military Transgender Ban

Harris' proposal to expand heath care and housing assistance, posted to Medium just minutes before she took the stage at a forum in New Hampshire with veterans, would apply to more than 500,000 veterans who have received other-than-honorable discharges for misconduct that was linked to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injuries (TBI). "This is for me about seeing the veteran in the complexity of your life. You have done so much for your country and we owe you that we will see you in the full dimension of the life that you live," the California senator said during her event in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Stracqualursi and Wright, 9/7)

Read Harris' plan: Kamala’s Promise to America’s Veterans and Military Families

Meanwhile, in other elections-related news —

ProPublica: Medicare-For-All Is Not Medicare, And Not Really For All. So What Does It Actually Mean?

Ritchard Jenkins reached into the black computer bag he keeps near his workstation at Graceful Touch Barber and Beauty Salon and rifled through medical papers, pulling out an envelope buried deep at the bottom. It was an unopened medical bill for $971.78, now 17 months overdue, that he had put out of sight and out of mind. Another unpaid bill from May for $447.13 rested in a nearby drawer. Both are the result of an arthritic knee that needs to be replaced and keeps the 55-year-old master barber in near-constant pain. (Johnson, 9/6)

KHN explains: Defining The Debate On Health Care Coverage Options

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