The House bill introduced on April 7, 2015, would go a bit
further, making veterans eligible for non-VA mental health care regardless of
where the veteran lives, the date on which the veteran enrolled in VA health
care, or whether or not the veteran tried to get an appointment for mental
health care at a VA facility.
On March 25, 2015, the Ruth Moore Act of 2015 was introduced
in the House. This bill is almost identical to the Ruth Moore Act of 2013 that had
passed the House, but died in the Senate. Hopefully it will make it through
this time around. The Ruth Moore Act allows for Mental Disorders caused
by MST to be considered service-connected, and thus eligible for Military Disability,
even if the original incident wasn’t reported, as long as a mental health
professional diagnoses the condition as being caused by MST and there is
sufficient evidence that the trauma did occur. (Further details on “sufficient
evidence” of MST can be found in our earlier article on MST Awareness.) The VA would also be directed
to decide any reasonable doubts in favor of the veteran.
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