Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Vets With PTSD Face Bias From Navy Board That Oversees Discharge Upgrade Requests, Lawsuit Claims
The New York Times: Suit Calls Navy Board Biased Against Veterans With PTSD
Things got ugly for Cpl. Tyson Manker in Iraq. During a firefight in the confusion of the 2003 invasion, the 21-year-old Marine shot up a bus full of civilians. Later, during a chase, he dropped an Iraqi in a flowing white robe with a shot to the torso, only to discover afterward that he had hit a teenage girl. His squad beat detainees, and accidentally shot several other civilians. After his deployment, Corporal Manker was kicked out of the Marine Corps with an other-than-honorable discharge — not for anything that happened in combat, but for smoking marijuana to try to quiet his nerves when he got home. (Philipps, 3/2)
The Associated Press: Veterans With Mental Illnesses Sue Navy Over Discharges
Navy and Marine Corps veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems have accused the Navy of offering them less-than-honorable discharges that prevent them from getting Veterans Affairs benefits. The lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Connecticut seeks class-action status for thousands of Navy and Marine Corps veterans. The veterans are represented by students from Yale Law School's Veterans Legal Services Clinic, which filed a similar lawsuit against the Army last year.Navy officials did not immediately return a message seeking comment Friday. (Collins, 3/2)
In other veterans' health care news —
The Miami Herald: Miami VA Investigation Finds Discrepancies In Veteran HIV Tests — Some Were Positive
At least eight military veterans who were tested for HIV at the Miami VA Medical Center received a different result when they were screened for a second time by an outside lab — a discrepancy discovered only after an employee at the Miami facility complained to outside agencies and the White House that local managers were ignoring his concerns, according to an independent federal investigator. (Chang 3/3)
