Military Order

 of the

Purple Heart

 

    Texas Capital Chapter 1919

   Austin, Texas

 

 e-mail:  or,  call (512) 343-7940, Milt Carr, Adjutant

 

   

BENEFITS

…benefits specifically for…

 PURPLE HEART RECIPIENTS

Until recent years, benefits for Purple Heart recipients were, to our knowledge, non-existent in Texas.  Now, and mostly all just since 1999, the federal government extends VA medical care, and the state of Texas makes available money saving special license plates and certain free parking privileges to veterans, solely based on the award of the Purple Heart.  Federal and state law as implemented respectively by the Department of Veterans Affairs and Texas Department of Transportation currently provide for the below listed benefits.  The VA and TxDOT implementing regulations necessarily govern at all times.  Those contain many pages of legal wording and may change without notice in response to court rulings and legal interpretation as well as new legislation, but; our one-page summarization here will be kept as up-to-date as we can make it.

 

► Free VA Medical Care.  If you have not already done so, you can present your proof of award of the Purple Heart and VA will register you for medical care in priority group 3 (same group as those with 10 and 20 percent service-connected disabilities).  Enrollees receive free medical care, that is, without assessment of co-payments.  The only cost, and that does not necessarily apply in all cases, is that Pharmacy prescriptions may require a co-payment.  The current VA rate is $8 for each 30-day supply of a prescription medication. This medical benefit for Purple Heart recipients was enacted by Congress in 1999 and occasionally we still find some who are eligible that are not aware of it.  All who have been relying on some other health care system should carefully compare what they have now against what the VA will provide.  There is a potential here for some Purple Heart veterans to save many thousands of dollars in medical costs by signing up.

 

► Texas Purple Heart License Plates.  You may register your car with Purple Heart Plates at your County Tax Assessor-Collector’s Office for only $3 per year.  If you do not, you are not only losing out on saving whatever money you have been paying for your regular license plates every year; but you also miss out on certain free parking privileges (see below).

 

► Free Transfer of Purple Heart Plates.  You can transfer Purple Heart Plates to your newly purchased vehicle without fee by the state.  In order to save the transfer fee you (or your car dealer) must use a “special plates” transfer form (VTR-420 UT).

 

► To obtain forms.  Download forms from www.txdot.gov.   Or, call the Texas Department of Transportation, (512) 374-5010 and go thru the “menu” of pressing buttons and you can get a customer service representative who will mail you the blank forms for anything to do with military plates, including free Transfer of Purple Heart plates to a new vehicle.  Also, the Vehicle Titles and Registration office that serves your local community will have them available.

 

► Free Parking Privileges apply for vehicles with Texas Purple Heart license plates in certain cases.  Since March 1999, Texas’ Transportation Code (Section 681.008) has provided that, “A vehicle on which license plates…(specifies Purple Heart plates, also Disabled Vet, POW, Pearl Harbor survivor, and Medal of Honor plates)…are displayed is exempt from the payment of a parking fee collected through a parking meter charged by a governmental authority other than a branch of the federal government, when being operated by or for the…(person who registered the vehicle…).”   You need not feed coins into city parking meters in Texas when you park your Purple Heart plated vehicle.  To avoid any misunderstanding it is advisable to check with your city officials to affirm its observance of the state law providing for certain free parking privileges. Free parking for Purple Heart plated vehicles may also be granted at city airports because the code also states, “A governmental unit may provide by ordinance or order that exemption…also applies to payment of a fee or penalty imposed…for parking in a parking garage or lot or in a space with a limitation on the length of time for parking.”  You may be required to claim the privilege at the toll booth and sign your name and plate number, but frequent flyers can potentially save big bucks in airport parking in Texas in those cities that participate.  If paying the parking fee could be a problem for you, then check with the airport first to confirm if they provide this benefit and if so, what limitations might apply. (Note: this does not apply to privately owned parking facilities, also, please be a good citizen and do not park in Handicap Parking spaces unless you also display a Handicap Placard or have the handicap symbol included on the Purple Heart plate.)

 

► Note: Many valuable benefits, in fact the majority of veterans benefits, are available to all veterans and have nothing to do with the Purple Heart or any other individual awards and decorations. Visit your County Veterans Service Officer, or the Texas Veterans Commission, or the Texas Veterans Land Board to learn about them. A very valuable new benefit is the “Post 9/11 G.I. Bill,” educational benefit that goes into effect in August 2009 and will provide tremendous assistance for college bound veterans who have served on active duty after September 2001.

 

 

Last Updated 4-23-2009