Military Veterans From US Territories Battle for VA Benefits

Before Alex Ortiz’s wife gave birth to their son, she left the couple’s Caribbean home and traveled some 1,600 miles to Rhode Island, where she had family, to deliver the baby. Ortiz had grown up in Puerto Rico before he joined the Army, and after he left active duty, the couple lived in Arizona before returning to his roots.

Ortiz medically retired from the Army, so he and his wife had health care through TRICARE—the military medical system that provides care to active-duty service members, retirees, and their families. But when his wife got pregnant, he realized his decision to start a family where he had grown up put him at a disadvantage.

Although Ortiz was a U.S. citizen and a veteran, because he lived in Puerto Rico—a U.S. territory, rather than a state—he qualified for only a limited version of TRICARE. For his wife to give birth at a local hospital, the couple would have had to cough up tens of thousands of dollars, he said.