Veterans Medical Benefits?

[TCups]

Guess what, Vets?  Obama needs you to pay for your own health care.  Change you can believe in.

[Gene_SC]

Well the VA has taken very good care of me since I got sick back in the late 80's. I depend on my benifits to survive. Without them I would die.

[TCups]

See:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20090316/pl_usnw/the_american_legion_strongly_opposed_to_president_s_plan_to_charge_wounded_heroes_for_treatment

http://www.buffalonews.com/180/story/610029.html

You Veterans better perk your ears up on this one and start sending your Senators and US Representatives a FLOOD of email voicing your opinion.

tec

[Dave1899]

Yes, the VA takes good care of me as well...No complaints here. Not sure what the Prez has up his sleeve though.

[shearload]

This is an interesting can of worms.  I've been watching and reading about it quite a while.  Partly from personal interest, partly because I have four brothers who also served.  Three of them rely almost entirely on the VA for medical care.  And partly because there's a lot of money at stake, and when that much money is involved, politics ain't beanbag.

I carry medical insurance because my family isn't eligible for VA care.  It costs me almost nothing through my employer, a French company that apparently believes its US employees shouldn't worry about medical costs. Our local VA hospital shares staff with the local University Hospital, an adjunct to our state's only medical school.  Both offer outstanding care, both in- and out-patient.  I can choose either one, with little difference in out-of-pocket costs.  If I choose the VA, my insurance company pays nothing.  If I choose the University system, my insurance company pays.  

If I chose the VA, I would have no objection to them billing my insurance company.  Let the VA spend that money on better care for my brothers.  But the VA can't bill my insurer, as I understand it.  If it could, I would probably use the VA more often.  Now, I don't because I feel like I'm taking a place in line when I don't need to, and the others in line have no other place to go.

Two of my brothers are eligible for Medicare.  I notice the Legion is all for billing Medicare for their care at the VA.  Why the difference?  Sure, billing Medicare for my brothers' care would put more money into the VA.  So would billing my insurance company.  Since it isn't likely the VA's needs will be any less in the future, who doesn't want private insurers to pay, if the vet carries medical insurance anyway?  Go ahead, guess.

If the vet doesn't carry private insurance, the VA can't bill the insurer.  That's OK.  But many, maybe most, working vets carry private health insurance if they can, and especially if they have families.

It's good that the VA will provide me and my brothers medical care whether we have insurance or not.  But explain to me again why my insurance company wins, and other vets lose, when I choose to go the VA for care.

As I understand it, the proposal to bill private insurance is dead for now.  The debate was framed quickly and effectively as America breaking its promise to veterans.  Of course, we taxpayers can't pay the costs now; we're hoping our kids and grand kids won't mind paying our bills.  Actually, we don't care if they mind.  We're sending them the bill anyway.

[Hermie]

It was a suggestion, not an order, and didn't go anywhere... I believe vets and service members should get the best care possible for putting their lives on the line.Bush should have given solders better armor and equipment. Hell, that warmonger should be shot for the crap he's pulled.

Edited by Gene Curtis
Inapropriate language used.

[erskine]

Hermie - 3/25/2009  6:58 PM  

It was a suggestion, not an order, and didn't go anywhere... I believe vets and service members should get the best care possible for putting their lives on the line.Bush should have given solders better armor and equipment. Hell, that warmonger should be shot for the crap he's pulled.

Edited by Gene Curtis
Inapropriate language used.

You know, Hermie, I am a line of duty disabled veteran. Actually I come from a line of soldiers you can barely imagine. You see my grandfather, and I am 57, but my GRANDFATHER was a soldier in WWI. My father fought in Korea, ayup, and my step-father, well he fought in WWII, Korea, and did two tours in Viet-Nam. Me, I'm just a cold war vet. My son, well one of my sons, is a veteran of the Iraq war (the current one). He was shot by a sniper (a Syrian sniper) in the neck in the spring of 2008 in Anbar province. Now Hermie, I know that God is a hard concept for you, but my son and I, we, being actual warriors, have no problems "groking" the concept of God. Hermie, he not only lived, but he was otherwise not harmed. He crawled back up the hill to his SAW, picked it up and tried to kill the SOB that shot him. Sadly the coward had run away.

Now, mister "The President should be shot for the crap he has pulled." How would you feel if I said the same thing? I mean it is my turn, isn't it? So Mister Mouth, what would you say if I said, "The President should be shot for the crap that he has pulled?" Would you like that? Would it be reasonable?

Hermie, your problem is really pretty simple, you are deluded. You actually think there is a difference between Republicans and Democrats. You poor stupid man.

I'll give you another 3 years to figure it out.

Honestly though, if you children do not figure it out, AND I MEAN PRETTY DAMNED SOON, you are not going to have a choice any longer. It is time to take back your government people.

VOTE OUT THE ENCUMBENTS...

Oh, yeah, How do you like MY designer ICON? My German Shepard B1tsch can kick your faggot fox arse any day.... and it didn't cost me a dime. Notice how she is looking to your right, while your fox thingie is looking to my left? Notice how she is serious, honest and open, while your fox thingie is pretending to look subtile and erudite? Do you notice how she actually looks like a dog? I mean what German Shepard Dog could not just kick a fox's butt before breakfast? You PAID MONEY for THAT icon? lol... poor man, I mean really. You actually BOUGHT that ICON? Dude, that speaks volumes... What kind of fool does it take to PAY someone to make an ICON for him to use on the Internet? Oh, wait, I think I know... it takes the same kind of fool that it takes to elect a man named Barack...

[Dutchspringer]

Like  I said to Gene, I thank you for you and your families service Erskine.  I was a probation officer here in Denver, and left there to enter the DEA and become a sniper.  There were 3500 applicants for one or two positions, and the Good Lord allowed me to be one of the boys chosen.  This was 1996 and 1997.  Two weeks before leaving for Quantico VA to go through 7 months of training and sniper school, my recruiter called me into his office to informe me that the Health Dept. in Washington DC had just reviewed an eye exam that I had taken nearly TWO YEARS prior, and found out that I was "blue/green indifferent"  - which is a type of color blindness that afflicts up to 70% of European decent blue eyed men and the vast majority have (like me) no idea they have it.  End of the day, I became a full-time carpenter for 12 yrs. with my own business.  I will always have a special thankfulness in my heart for you boys who went through with your training to allow our sorry  "arses" to live in a free country and do as we please.  Well, it pleases me to thank you and your family, and I salute you.  God's love to you,  Ross

[TCups]

Thanks for your service, Erskin.  I like your dog, too.  And you are right about the political ilk of politicians.  Not much difference between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to spending other's money.  Time to boot out as many of the incumbents as possible.  Tax reform (Fair Tax) and term limits (including term limits for Supreme Court Judges) ought to be the cornerstones if there is to be any meaningful, non-violent change brought about in US government.  But I fear the path this nation is on, especially if the voters don't wake up and realize what is at stake here.

[ShadowShot]

Michael,

you kicked the fox poo right out of him.
That  was borderline animal abuse.
Sick em.......

[Gene_SC]

Ok Guys that is enough.

Gene

[erskine]

I was bad.  I'm sorry, prolly the PTSD...

Did you see this?
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jolDvz-wgGMNcrez_pn8zfpAUwxwD97JUA582

[ShadowShot]

I'm sorry Gene.


Michael,
 now look what you did.
 Dads mad at both of us.

Your always getting us in trouble.

[TCups]

Yep, take it easy on Hermie.  He is entitled to his opinion.  What fun would it be if all of us here were knuckle dragging red neck gun nuts who had no difference of opinion?  But it is definitely time for everyone to get involved personally with what is going on in US political policy.  Let's ardently and vocally defend the Constitution, starting with the 1st and 2nd Amendments, not bash liberals personally.  Let's get vocal about some meaningful tax reform, restraints on government spending, and term limits.  

As for stopping the flow of US guns into Mexico, hey, I am all for that!  We should keep as many guns as possible here in the USA for our own use.  And I say, torture terrorists, not taxpayers.

[Big_Bill]

As for hoping to cure the ills of today with your vote.  I hope that they havent fixed all of the election machines, if they will even bother.  With 75% of the media being OWNED by the political parties, all they have to do now, is announce the winner, and even if you could prove they were wrong, there is nothing that you could do. If you do not think that this could happen, just remember the look on Hilary Clinton's face, when Obama came out of no were. A group organizer, junior senator, that no one ever heard of outside of Chicago. Now he's WHAT !!!!    Bill