Recruits With Heart Failure, Some Mental Health Issues Can’t Join Military: Hegseth

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

People who want to join the military cannot do so if they have congestive heart failure or one of a dozen other conditions, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a memorandum released on July 22.

Being treated for schizophrenia, having a history of paraphilic disorders, or suffering from multiple sclerosis are other conditions that are ineligible for medical accession waivers, Hegseth said.

“America’s warfighters must be physically and mentally capable of performing their duties in the harshest of conditions,” Hegseth wrote in the memo, which is dated July 11. “Severe underlying medical conditions introduce significant risks on the battlefield and threaten not only mission priorities, but also the health and safety of the affected individual and their fellow Service members.”

Medical waivers allow applicants for military service to serve even though the applicants have a current or past condition that means they do not meet military standards. Approximately 13 to 16 percent of applicants were rejected for not meeting the standards from fiscal year 2016 through fiscal year 2020, according to the Department of Defense’s inspector general.

The full list of conditions newly ineligible for the waivers includes the following:

• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
• Current chronic supplemental oxygen use
• Current congestive heart failure
• Current epilepsy
• Current treatment for schizophrenia
• History of cystic fibrosis
• History of receiving a solid organ transplant
• History of paraphilic disorders, or disorders involving abnormal sexual interests or behaviors
• Multiple sclerosis
• Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or brittle bone disease
• Suicidal attempt(s) within the previous 12 months
• Thoughts or plans of killing another person within the previous 12 months
• Trisomy 21, or Down syndrome

The list of conditions for which secretaries of military departments are the only officials who can now approve waivers includes the following:

• Current central nervous system shunts
• Current ostomy
• Eye missing or lack of vision in at least one eye
• Foot missing
• Hand missing, or bony portion of hand missing, excepting digits
• History of chronic hepatic failure
• History of chronic kidney disease requiring dialysis
• History of corneal transplant
• History of disorders with psychotic features, including schizophrenic disorders
• History of myocardial infarction, or heart attacks
• History of neurodegenerative disorders, such as disorders affecting the spinal cord
• History of scleroderma, a disease that features tight skin and tissue
• Having an implanted pacemaker or defibrillator

The Department of Defense, in its most recently updated military standards from 2024, had said that a number of the conditions now deemed by Hegseth as ineligible for waivers could be eligible for waivers.

Waivers for medical and other conditions are widely used. Just 23 percent of America’s youth were eligible to enlist without a waiver, a defense official told reporters in 2024.

The Pentagon said the updated medical waiver eligibility is aimed at making sure America’s military has high standards and stays ready to fight.

“The Department remains committed to mission success by ensuring that the young Americans who serve are physically and mentally capable of performing their duties in the harshest conditions,” Sean Parnell, the department’s chief spokesperson, said in a statement.