Not guns, but politics

[dburkhead]

A friend of mine from another forum is a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer. She has recently had some bad experiences with the "health care" provided to retirees. That prompted the following letter to go out:

One of the high priorities of the new administration is likely to be health care, in particular attempting to have some form of government provided/paid for health care for all Americans. This, however, would be seriously premature while there remain serious problems where the government is providing health care to those that are already its responsibility, such as people in the military, veterans and military retirees, and people covered by Medicare and Medicaid.

Some examples: A friend of mine is a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer. She has experienced dwindling coverage on medical and dental to the point that recently, the cost of the retirement "benefit" was actually higher than paying for private coverage. If the government cannot provide quality health and dental coverage to military retirees then how can it provide them to the American people as a whole?

When I was in the military, I suffered a knee injury when a ladder collapsed underneath me and I fell 15 feet to a concrete floor. I spent the next several weeks on crutches while my knee heeled. Since leaving the military I have had ongoing problems with that knee. Injuries of that nature tend to have long term consequences, getting worse over time. The Veterans Administration simply declared it a "0% disability" and not their responsibility. If the government cannot provide quality health care to me now, how can I expect it to provide quality health care to me in the future?

When I left the military, there was a period in which my "health coverage" was through Medicaid. During that time I had unconscionably long waits to see a provider. It was during this period that I started suffering periods of abdominal pain. By the time I could see a doctor the attack had stopped. Some testing was done but nothing was found. It was only after I obtained private health insurance that I was able to be seen in good time while the attack was happening and the cause could be discovered--intermittent gall bladder failure (it was only failing while I was having the attacks). Again, if the government could not provide quality health care to me when it had a responsibility to do so, how can I expect it to provide quality health care to me, or anyone else, in the future?

And so, I urge you to oppose any attempt to impose a national health care plan until such time as these kinds of issues are fixed. The government must first provide quality health care to people to whom it already has a responsibility before even considering expanding those responsibilities.

Thank you for your time.

Letter's going out to Obama, Lugar, Bayh, and Carson.

I would hope that folk could lend their weight to the issue as well.

 

[Mr.Hoppes]

I had a Missile lift fall 3 decks and crush my skull while active duty aboard ship. I was working on that system as part of my job when the accident happened.

Once the VA was involved, they tried to drop me from 20% to 0%. It turned out to be 100%. It just took time to prove it to them. Time and money. Money because although I had filed for hearing and fought I or these that assisted me didn't know the proper terminology to get the 100 % I was seeking. 20 years ago that was common place. Lawyers had not really gotten involved with disability issues back then. I had contacted lawyers to represent me with basic information and was turned down outright. I was never given the full payment back to when I originally filed because of wording and the game the VA system plays to deprive veterans of money they deserve. I got some back pay but not nearly half. To make ends meet I worked. All the time I worked especially in the Fields I worked I put my life and that of others at risk. I didn't know what was happening but the VA did. Had the Va told me what was wrong with me, I would have had an open and shut case for 100%. But they with held my medical information from Me.

The VA system is flawed not only Medically, but it is also flawed in it's administration. The ethics of the administration undermine health care and the doctors who seek to provide it. New medications that can be a life changing benefit, are not available because of money. Things that change quality of life are denied.

Some of this is flawed in the basic conceptual funding of the VA. I am not saying blank checks should be written but basic timely services should at the very least be provided. Time and resources are wasted every year trying to get the Government to provide the funding that the VA needs. THIS IS THE EXAMPLE WE ARE GOING TO FACE. You think HMO's were bad, wait till a system based on the VA health care comes to town.

 

[jsgolfman]

You can tell a lot about a government by the way it treats its vets.

 

[dburkhead]

You can tell a lot about a government by the way it treats its vets.

QFT

OTOH, I figure with this as a bar (fixing the "health care" the government already has responsibility for) we can be pretty eliminate any worry about "national health care" since I'd lay pretty long odds that they never will fix what they already have under their control.

 

[jsgolfman]

Sorry if this is obvious, but what does qft mean? I try to keep up with the lingo, but don't know that one.

 

[dburkhead]

Sorry if this is obvious, but what does qft mean? I try to keep up with the lingo, but don't know that one.

Quoted for truth.

 

[CarmelHP]

QFT

OTOH, I figure with this as a bar (fixing the "health care" the government already has responsibility for) we can be pretty eliminate any worry about "national health care" since I'd lay pretty long odds that they never will fix what they already have under their control.

That's never stopped them reaching for more. Didn't Obama say he wanted to "spread the misery" or something like that?