Friday, May 3, 2013

Reporting For Roll Call


Hi LT:
In response to your question about Rule #1:

When I said I got up, left, and never came back...I was referring to that particular VA Center at the time. Had nothing to do with the VA in general. And, since I was neither retired military, nor had a verifiable service-connected disability, didn't see much point in wasting any more of my time and effort with it. Furthermore, at that time, unless you were in one of those categories, you really didn't have much of a claim for any of their services.

As you may recall it wasn't until in the late 80s early 90s sometime, when they finally decided to have all veterans sign up for a VA card. Remember? Which I did...and have used on an annual basis...to get a free flu shot. As for the rest, again, unless you are in one of those two mentioned categories, with that card, you can seek medical attention, even hospitalization, but on a very low priority basis, and if you have private insurance and/or Medicare, who pays for what and how...is still a muddle.

According to the VA here in SF, Congress was supposedly working on a formula to get around the prohibition of one department shifting funds to another department, so that veterans with Medicare, could use it to re-imburse the VA,just like any other provider....that was some 10 years ago...and Congress, of course, has yet to do anything about it. According to the last thing I got:
a) I can go to the VA here, pay a flat "fee" of $50 bucks, and see as many doctors, specialists as can be crammed into that visit as necessary.
b) If I'm admitted to hospital...I'd have a flat fee of $750 bucks, regardles of my length of stay. So, from an out of pocket expense perspective, veterans like me, basically have a $50 "co-pay" deal per visit. Not very attractive. But if we do manage to get taken in for hospitalization...$750 bucks as the max "co-pay" cost...beats the hell out of anything private insurance offers...even Obama Care!

To summarize...for me...the VA is simply a fail-safe deal...should I ever find myself in a situation where I have no other means to cover any medical needs. But since I'm paying for Medicare anyway (..they take it out of my Soc. Sec), see no point in using VA except in minor way as I do now.
And just from a personal perspective...VA facilities are clutttered up enough already with guys who are really hurting and qualify for its attention, that, and at my "age", I sure as hell have no desire to arm wrestle with any kind of bureaucratic crappola in whatever time is left in the joy of my declining years! (of course if Congress ever gets off its ass and fixes things like this Medicare deal...that might be a different story).

By the way, the only way anyone gets a "free" flag is if they die in a VA hospital. Otherwise...zilch. But we're covered. My mother did...and I still have the one they gave for her. Guess we'll use it for me...how's that for a two-fer deal!
Centurion