• A medical discharge comes with a variety of benefits.Medical instruments image by Keith Frith from Fotolia.com
  
  Veterans from the navy are typically given a set of benefits for life, provided that their discharge from the military is not a dishonorable one. Medical discharges are no exception, though a medical discharge may be from an injury received in combat or due to a pre-existing condition that worsened throughout service.
  
  

Honorable Discharge

• A medical discharge from the United States Navy is traditionally considered to be an honorable discharge, or a general discharge under honorable conditions. Generally speaking this means that the sailor's discharge is under good conditions and that he was in good standing when the discharge occurred, with no behavioral or criminal actions. Under either discharge condition, a person discharged from the navy is definitely qualified for military benefits. This can be especially important depending on how truly serious the medical condition the person was discharged for turns out to be.
  
  

VA Benefits

• If the individual given a medical discharge from the navy is a veteran then they qualify for Veteran's Association benefits. This includes access to VA hospitals, education assistance (other than the GI Bill), pension benefits to spouses and children, medical and dental care, prosthetics and seeing eye dogs, burial rights, special housing and a variety of other benefits offered to qualifying veterans. The full benefits apply to veterans who are given either an honorable discharge, or a general discharge under honorable circumstances.
  
  

Military Benefits

• There are other benefits apart from VA benefits that apply to all persons given a naval medical discharge. These are called military benefits. These benefits include use of wartime title and wearing of the uniform, naturalization benefits, civil service employment preference, credit for retirement benefits, homestead preference, payment for accrued leave and a variety of other benefits. There are a huge number of these benefits--too many to list here--but following the FAQ link in References will take you to a complete list of these military benefits.