How to Enroll in VA Health Care (and Where Vet Centers Fit)

VA Benefits · Updated October 2026 · 16 min read

This guide is for veterans who have never enrolled in VA health care, service members getting ready to separate, National Guard and Reserve members, and anyone who was told they don't qualify. It explains who can enroll, how to apply, how priority groups and 2026 copays work, when VA pays for community, urgent and emergency care, what an other than honorable discharge still allows, and how Vet Centers, the Veterans Crisis Line and VA dental benefits fit in.

Who can enroll: the basic service rules

You don't need a disability rating to use VA health care. You may be eligible if you served in the active military, naval, or air service and didn't receive a dishonorable discharge. Veterans covered by the PACT Act can enroll without applying for disability benefits first, and having Medicare, Medicaid or other insurance doesn't affect your eligibility.

If you enlisted after September 7, 1980, or entered active duty after October 16, 1981, you generally need 24 continuous months of service or the full period you were called to serve. That minimum may not apply if you were discharged for a disability caused or worsened by service, discharged for a hardship or an "early out," served before September 7, 1980, or are seeking care under a special authority such as treatment for military sexual trauma (MST).

Guard and Reserve members must have been called to active duty by a federal order and completed the full period. Active duty for training alone doesn't qualify. But if you otherwise meet the service rules, a toxic exposure risk activity during training can still place you in priority group 6, and Vet Centers serve some drilling Reserve members who never deployed.

If you were turned away years ago, check again, because the rules have changed. If you meet the minimum service and discharge rules, any one of these may give you what VA calls enhanced eligibility, which means a higher priority group:

• VA disability compensation, or a discharge for a line-of-duty disability
• Service in a theater of combat operations after November 11, 1998, with a discharge after September 11, 2001 (for 10 years after discharge)
• A VA pension, or getting or qualifying for Medicaid
• Former POW status, a Purple Heart, or the Medal of Honor
• Exposure to toxins or hazards such as chemicals, asbestos or nuclear weapons, even in training and even if you never deployed
• Gulf War service in Southwest Asia from August 2, 1990, to November 11, 1998, at least 30 days at Camp Lejeune from August 1, 1953, to December 31, 1987, or service in listed Vietnam War era locations

Other than honorable discharges: what you can still get

An other than honorable (OTH) discharge, or a bad conduct discharge from a special court-martial, doesn't automatically shut you out. You can apply for a discharge upgrade (see our guide "Discharge Upgrades and Record Corrections"), or ask VA for a Character of Discharge review, in which VA decides whether your service counts for VA benefits. That decision doesn't change your military discharge.

A VA rule that took effect June 25, 2024 created a "compelling circumstances" exception for some former service members, removed a regulatory bar tied to "homosexual acts," and lets people VA denied before reapply.

Some care doesn't require enrolling. By law, the mental health benefit below covers former members, including Reserve members, who weren't discharged dishonorably or by court-martial and aren't enrolled. For MST-related care, ask for the MST coordinator at any VA medical facility.

VA says that with an OTH discharge you may get the following without enrolling:

• Care for a VA-rated service-connected disability
• Free care for conditions related to military sexual trauma, with no minimum length of service and no need to have reported it at the time
• Mental health care if you served more than 100 cumulative days and deployed to a combat theater, in support of a contingency operation or to an area of hostilities, including as a drone operator working from outside that area
• Emergency mental health care if you're in crisis
• Vet Center counseling

How to apply, and what happens next

Apply with VA Form 10-10EZ, the Application for Health Benefits. You can apply online at VA.gov; by phone at 877-222-8387, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET, or through MyVA411 at 800-698-2411, staffed 24/7; by mailing a signed form to Health Eligibility Center, PO Box 5207, Janesville, WI 53547-5207; or in person at your nearest VA medical center or clinic.

VA never charges a fee to apply for benefits or health care. For help, ask an accredited Veterans Service Organization (VSO) representative, whose help on VA claims is always free, or your state veterans agency. If anyone wants to charge you, look them up in VA's Office of General Counsel accreditation search first.

VA usually decides in less than 1 week. If a week passes, call 877-222-8387 rather than applying again. Approval brings a letter, a welcome call to set up your first appointment, and a benefits handbook explaining your priority group and copays. A denial letter explains how to request a decision review.

Still serving? Apply as soon as you have separation or retirement papers; if you're eligible, enrollment starts when you leave. Once enrolled, request your Veteran Health Identification Card (VHIC) online or at a VA medical center and use it to check in at appointments.

Before you apply, gather these:

• Social Security numbers for you, your spouse and your dependents
• Your DD214 or other separation papers, plus details of any toxic or hazard exposures
• Insurance cards for every plan that covers you, including Medicare and coverage through a spouse
• Last calendar year's gross household income and deductible expenses (optional, but VA needs them if you don't qualify another way)

Priority groups, income and 2026 copays

Once you're enrolled, VA places you in the highest of 8 priority groups you qualify for. Group 1 is a service-connected rating of 50% or more, unemployability due to service-connected conditions, or the Medal of Honor. Group 2 is a rating of 30% or 40%. Group 3 covers ratings of 10% or 20%, former POWs, Purple Heart recipients and line-of-duty disability discharges. Group 4 covers aid and attendance or housebound benefits and catastrophic disability. Group 5 covers veterans without a compensable rating whose income is below VA's local limits, plus VA pension recipients and anyone eligible for Medicaid. Group 6 covers a compensable 0% rating, combat veterans in their 10-year window, and many exposure and service-era groups.

Everyone else who agrees to pay copays goes into group 7 or 8, depending on whether household income is below or above VA's local limits, which change every year. In group 8, income no more than 10% over the limits still qualifies. If your income is higher than that and nothing else qualifies you, VA may not be able to enroll you, though it can still treat a 0% service-connected condition.

Some veterans pay no copays because of their disability rating, income or other factors. Care for VA-rated service-connected conditions is free. A rating of 10% or higher ends outpatient and inpatient copays, and group 1 pays no medication copays. VA's rules also waive outpatient and inpatient copays for former POWs, Purple Heart and Medal of Honor recipients, veterans discharged for a line-of-duty disability, catastrophically disabled veterans, veterans VA finds can't afford them, and veterans documented as Indian or urban Indian. Readjustment counseling, MST care, VA claim exams, lab tests and combat-related care in your 10-year window are free for everyone.

For everyone else, these are the 2026 copays, effective January 1, 2026, for care unrelated to your service:

• $15 for a primary care visit
• $50 for a specialty care visit, and $50 for a specialty test such as an MRI
• No copay for X-rays, lab tests or preventive care such as screenings and immunizations
• Medications cost $5, $8 or $11 per 30-day supply, depending on the tier, and charges stop for the year once you've been charged $700
• Hospital stays: the first 90 days in a 365-day period cost $1,736 plus $10 a day at the full rate (generally group 8) or $347.20 plus $2 a day at the reduced rate (generally group 7, and some veterans in high-cost areas)

Combat veterans and the PACT Act

If you served in a theater of combat operations after November 11, 1998, and were discharged after September 11, 2001, VA gives you free care for conditions possibly related to that service for 10 years from discharge. That window used to be five years. The PACT Act, signed August 10, 2022, made it 10. With multiple call-ups, the clock starts at your most recent discharge.

VA places you in priority group 6 or higher and confirms combat service from your records, combat medals, or combat tax exemption, imminent danger pay or hostile fire pay. You stay enrolled after the window closes. But if you first apply after it ends, VA won't count your combat service, which is why VA urges combat veterans to apply right away.

The PACT Act also opened enrollment to toxic-exposed veterans on a schedule phased over several years, and VA moved everyone up. So even if your 10-year window has passed or you never deployed, exposure alone may now qualify you. A separate one-year enrollment window for some earlier post-9/11 combat veterans opened October 1, 2022 and has closed. Every enrolled veteran is offered a toxic exposure screening, repeated at least once every 5 years.

Since March 5, 2024, veterans who meet the basic service and discharge rules can enroll if they:

• Served in the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan, or any other combat zone after 9/11
• Deployed in support of Operations Enduring Freedom, Freedom's Sentinel, Iraqi Freedom, New Dawn or Inherent Resolve, or the Resolute Support Mission
• Were assigned on or after August 2, 1990, to Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia or the United Arab Emirates, or on or after September 11, 2001, to Afghanistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen or Uzbekistan
• Took part in a toxic exposure risk activity on active duty or in training
• Were exposed at home or abroad to hazards such as burn pits, oil well fires, chemicals, radiation or herbicides

Community care: when VA pays for outside care

Under VA's Veterans Community Care Program, VA pays for care from in-network community providers when you're enrolled in or eligible for VA health care, your VA care team approves it first (except in certain cases such as urgent or emergency care), and you meet one of the conditions listed below. VA's drive-time and wait-time standards, set by regulation, hadn't changed as of October 2026.

What did change: under the Elizabeth Dole Act, signed January 2, 2025, a best-medical-interest decision by you and your referring clinician is final, for a two-year period that began 90 days after the law was signed. Factors include distance, how often you need care, wait times and continuity of care.

To ask, tell your VA care team or send a secure message. Preparing the referral can take up to 14 days. If you book the appointment yourself, tell your team within 14 days. Your authorization letter lists what's approved and for how long, and VA won't pay for anything outside it. Denials can be appealed through VA's clinical appeals process.

You need to meet at least one of these conditions:

• VA doesn't offer the service anywhere, such as maternity care
• Your state or territory has no full-service VA medical facility: Alaska, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands or the U.S. Virgin Islands
• VA can't meet its access standards: for primary care, mental health and non-institutional extended care, more than a 30-minute average drive or a wait of more than 20 days; for specialty care, more than a 60-minute average drive or a wait of more than 28 days, counted from your request
• You and your VA provider agree it's in your best medical interest
• The VA service doesn't meet VA quality standards
• You qualified under the old Veterans Choice Program's 40-mile distance rule as of June 2018, still live where you would qualify, and live in Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota or Wyoming

Urgent care, and the 72-hour rule for emergencies

Urgent care, for minor illnesses and injuries, is open to enrolled veterans who've had care from VA or an in-network provider in the past 24 months. No referral is needed, but use an in-network clinic, bring a photo ID and VA's urgent care billing card, and don't pay at the visit. Family members can't use it. In 2026, groups 1 to 5 pay nothing for the first 3 visits each calendar year and $30 for each visit after that; group 6 pays nothing for visits tied to a special authority such as combat, a covered exposure or MST, otherwise $30; groups 7 and 8 pay $30. Flu-shot-only visits are free.

If you think your life or health is in danger, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department; you don't need VA's permission. VA covers emergency care only at an emergency department, not an urgent care clinic. At a non-VA hospital, even one in VA's network, VA must be notified within 72 hours of when your emergency care starts. The hospital should do it, but you or someone acting for you can, through VA's emergency care reporting portal or by calling 844-724-7842 (TTY: 711). VA's regulation also accepts notice to the appropriate official at the nearest VA facility.

For emergencies other than a mental health crisis, VA can pay only if you're enrolled (or exempt from enrolling), no VA or other federal facility was feasibly available, and a prudent layperson would reasonably have believed that a delay would endanger your life or health. VA pays only until you can safely move to a VA or other federal facility.

Late notice isn't an automatic denial, but you then must meet VA's rules for unauthorized emergency care. VA may still pay if the care was for a service-connected condition or one that worsened it, if you're rated permanently and totally disabled, or if you needed the care to return to Veteran Readiness and Employment. Otherwise, you generally need care at VA or an in-network provider in the prior 24 months, and other insurance or any other party that could pay must be pursued first. Claims have time limits. For a bill you think VA should cover, call 877-881-7618.

Mental health crises have broader rules. If you're at risk of immediate self-harm, VA can provide or pay for emergency care plus up to 90 days of related care without enrollment if you experienced MST, or if you weren't dishonorably discharged and either served more than 24 months on active duty or served more than 100 days under a combat exclusion or in support of a contingency operation (including in the Reserve or as a drone operator).

Mental health care, the Veterans Crisis Line and Vet Centers

In a crisis, contact the Veterans Crisis Line any time: dial 988 and press 1, text 838255, or chat online through its website (TTY users can call 711, then 988). It's free, confidential and doesn't require VA enrollment. You can also call 911 or go to any VA medical center; VA says your discharge status and enrollment don't matter.

For non-emergencies, VA says help starts the day you reach out. Every VA medical center offers same-day mental health and primary care services, and you can call or walk in to any VA medical center at any hour.

Vet Centers are VA's community-based counseling centers, set up as relaxed, non-medical spaces. Counseling is confidential, free and without time limits: individual, group, couples and family counseling, MST counseling, grief counseling, substance use referral and help applying for benefits. You don't need to be enrolled in VA health care or receive disability compensation.

Mobile Vet Centers, vehicles with private counseling space, reach remote communities and respond to national emergencies and disasters. Families can join counseling that supports the veteran, and Vet Centers offer free grief counseling to families of service members who died on duty and of veterans and service members who died by suicide. The Vet Center Call Center, 877-927-8387, is open 24/7 and staffed by combat veterans and veterans' family members.

Veterans and service members, including Guard and Reserve members, can use a Vet Center if they:

• Served in a combat theater or area of hostility, or on a drone crew supporting one
• Experienced military sexual trauma, in any era
• Provided mortuary services or direct emergency medical care to war casualties on active duty
• Served on active duty for a presidentially declared national emergency or major disaster, or under a governor's orders for a state disaster or civil disorder
• Are Reserve component members in a drilling status with a service-related behavioral health condition, or current or former Coast Guard members who took part in drug interdiction
• Are using covered education benefits and have a service-related readjustment need

Dental care and using VA with other coverage

Enrollment doesn't automatically include dental care. Any needed dental care is available if you're compensated for a service-connected dental condition, are a former POW, or have service-connected disabilities rated 100% or are paid at that rate for unemployability (not a temporary rating). Other classes give limited care, such as for dental injuries from combat or service trauma.

Recently separated veterans may qualify for one-time dental care (Class II). It takes at least 90 days of active duty during the Persian Gulf War era (which VA dates from August 2, 1990, with no end date yet), a discharge that isn't dishonorable, and a DD214 that doesn't show a complete dental exam and all needed treatment in the 90 days before discharge. Apply within 180 days of discharge; VA's regulation also requires the VA dental exam within six months of discharge unless the delay isn't your fault. Anyone enrolled in VA health care or CHAMPVA can also buy discounted VADIP dental insurance from Delta Dental or MetLife, paying the full premium.

VA works alongside other coverage. By law it must bill private insurance, including a spouse's plan, for non-service-connected care; you don't owe the unpaid balance, and insurer payments can offset your VA copays. VA doesn't bill Medicare or Medicaid. VA encourages signing up for Medicare at 65, partly because a late Part B signup can mean a lifelong penalty; Part D has no late penalty if you join when first eligible or within 63 days of losing VA or other creditable drug coverage.

Retirees are eligible for TRICARE and may also qualify for VA care; medically retired members may use VA for service-connected disabilities and TRICARE for other care. Separating members and their families may qualify for temporary TRICARE coverage.

Sources

Every figure above is drawn from these sources. Figures and rules change, so check the current source before you act.

• VA.gov: Eligibility for VA health care
• VA.gov: Active-duty service members and VA health care
• VA.gov: VA priority groups
• VA.gov: How to apply for VA health care
• VA.gov: After you apply for health care benefits
• VA.gov: Current VA health care copay rates (effective January 1, 2026)
• eCFR: 38 CFR Chapter I, Parts 3 and 17 (sections 3.2, 17.108, 17.161, 17.4010, 17.4020, 17.4040), current through September 30, 2026
• 38 U.S.C. 1710 (U.S. Code, 2024 edition, GovInfo)
• 38 U.S.C. 1720I, mental and behavioral health care for certain former members (U.S. Code, 2024 edition, GovInfo)
• VA.gov: The PACT Act and your VA benefits
• Veterans Benefits Administration: Applying for Benefits and Your Character of Discharge
• VA.gov: What benefits can I get if I have an other than honorable discharge?
• VA.gov: Military sexual trauma (MST)
• VA.gov: Eligibility for community care outside VA
• VA.gov: How to get community care referrals and schedule appointments
• Public Law 118-210, Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act (GovInfo)
• VA.gov: Getting urgent care at VA or in-network community providers
• VA.gov: Getting emergency care at non-VA facilities
• VA.gov: VA mental health services
• VA Vet Centers (Readjustment Counseling) home page
• VA.gov: VA dental care
• VA.gov: VA health care and other insurance
• VA.gov: How to protect your identity and your VA benefits from scammers
• VA.gov: Get help from a VA accredited representative or VSO
• VA: Federal Benefits for Veterans, Dependents, Survivors, and Caregivers, 2026 Edition