‘End discriminatory policy vs veterans’

I am writing on behalf of veterans and retired servicemen and servicewomen in the Northern Mariana Islands who will be subjected to discrimination because they are being denied eligibility for the cost of air transportation to obtain VA health care services.

The Veterans Administration does not have medical clinics in the Northern Mariana Islands nor is there a Department of Defense medical facility here. Eligible veterans and service retirees therefore necessarily have to travel to Guam or Honolulu by air to obtain VA health care services at VA or DOD medical facilities.

Despite that the VA has provided for the cost of air transportation for eligible veterans in the past, the veterans and service retirees are now being told by VA officials in Honolulu that VA would no longer provide them transport in association with obtaining VA health care services because the Northern Mariana Islands is considered a “foreign country” for this purpose.

These veterans and retirees have given their all in service to country. They, moreover, meet the benefit qualifications for such services because they have 1) a service-connected (SC) rating of 30 percent or more, or 2) are traveling for treatment of a SC condition, or 3) receive a VA pension, or 4) their income does not exceed the maximum annual VA pension rate, or 5) are traveling for a scheduled compensation or pension examination.

It is unjust that these veterans and retirees can no longer avail themselves of VA provided means of transportation because VA officials incorrectly determined that the Northern Mariana Islands is a “foreign country” for purposes of providing means of transportation for eligible veterans and retirees wishing to obtain VA health care services not available here. These acts are discriminatory because the Northern Mariana Islands is not a “foreign country” but is a part of the United States of America and, moreover, because VA has provided the services in the past but has just now decided that this service is no longer available to eligible veterans and retirees from the Northern Mariana Islands.

I respectfully ask your Committees to please look into this discriminatory policy of the Veterans Administration and I respectfully further ask that you inform VA officials to immediately put a stop to this discriminatory policy against eligible veterans and retirees from the Northern Mariana Islands.