LOS MILITARES BORICUAS Y SUS DEPENDIENTES RECIBEN MENOS BENEFICIOS DE SALUD Y ECONÓMICOS QUE OTROS MILITARES

By ROBERT FRIEDMAN, Scripps Howard News Service Military widows and veterans in Puerto Rico receive fewer health benefits than their counterparts in the United States , even though Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens and serve shoulder-to-shoulder with their countrymen in Iraq and Afghanistan . That means that, like all island spouses whose soldier husbands or wives were killed in the latest U.S. wars, the widow of Army Sgt. Jeffrey Michael Rada Morales would get less than fully paid health insurance -- simply for living in Puerto Rico . The 32-year-old soldier drowned along with two others last month when their vehicle overturned in a river in Afghanistan during patrol duty. The unequal treatment his widow, Amanda Rada Morales, and his children, seven- and 10-years-old, would receive in Puerto Rico from the U.S. Department of Defense in its health care policy also extends to the 22,000 island military retirees under the age of 65 and their families. The reason: The Pentagon considers Puerto Rico an 'overseas' location. Yet, military retirees and survivors in Hawaii and Alaska , also considered 'overseas' by the Pentagon for purposes of the health plan, receive benefits on par with their fellow citizens who live in the contiguous 48 states. While active duty military and their families in Puerto Rico are eligible for TRICARE Prime, the Pentagon's fully paid HMO option, the under-65 retirees on the island are limited to a program called TRICARE Standard. Luis Fortuno, Puerto Rico's resident commissioner in Washington , says TRICARE Standard is equivalent to a health insurance program that the Defense Department itself deemed inadequate several years ago. Survivors of soldiers killed in war, if they live in Puerto Rico , qualify for the Prime program for two years, then must switch to Standard. 'If the husband, who is from Puerto Rico, goes to Iraq and is killed in action, and his wife, also Puerto Rican, wants to return home to the comfort of her family and friends, she receives less than full health care benefits,' said a former high-ranking officer who asked to remain anonymous because of continued military connections. 'Whatever happened to the saying by the military, 'We take care of our own?'' asked the retired officer, who served 20 years in the Army. 'They treat us like a foreign country,' he added. This is despite the fact that Puerto Ricans have a long history of military service. Fortuno noted that the island ranks 15th among the states for the total number of deployments in the war on terror for the Reserve and National Guard. More than 70 service members from Puerto Rico 'have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation' in these conflicts, Fortuno said. The inequality extends also to Pentagon programs for wounded soldiers. Fortuno said. 'I was recently informed that the Army opted not to establish a Soldier Transition Unit' in Puerto Rico , he said. Fortuno has been trying since 2006 to get the Pentagon to redress the situation. The Pentagon contends it is simply following federal law. http://www.scrippsnews.com)