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I'm also a vet; 1970-73, Army, Armor platoon leader in the 1st Infantry Division (lottery number 308) - and no one owes me a damn thing. I gave a couple of years of my life over to Uncle, but that was my choice. And they paid me for my time, gave me food, clothing, education, medical care, eye care, helped with my college bills, insured the down payment that I didn’t have to fork over on my first home, and helped me get employed when I got out. If I got hurt while I duty, then the government would be obligated. But I wasn't, so they don't.
Your link is interesting, but not sure how it addresses Martin's (or my) comment.
I got in the face of a couple of retired military with the Reserve Officers Assoc. a while ago. They were bitchin’ about the way retirees are treated in doctor’s visits and hospital care when they visit military hospitals or other government providers. They had some points, but bitchin’ about having to wait until active duty and their dependents get their medical care, just doesn’t cut it with me.
This guy came back at me with what the government “owed” to the military for their years of faithful service. That did it. Now I’m pissed and I jumped down his throat.
I told him that a Colonel I knew put in 23 years of great service (and he was a great officer) who retired with full benefits, and collected his government pension - all the while getting a paycheck from a major defense contractor. Then, about the same time as my sister, he came down with the same cancer she had.
He blew off his employer’s medical plan and went to Walter Reed under the government retiree benefits. There, he went through chemo, radiation, and several operations by some of the best surgeons in the country (the Army doctor that treated him later retired and wound up as a chief surgeon at Sloan-Kettering!!!! in NYC, the same hospital where my sister had her surgery).
My sister went through the same, only via her employer’s medical insurance. (And don't get me on what the employer did during this time.) The Colonel's family never had to go through the hell my family had to with the insurance company on getting prior approval for doctor visits, drugs, physical therapy, beds, oxygen, and auditing and correcting their awful billing errors, etc. (The hospital actually had a service that sent someone to our home just to find where their bill was matched up with what the insurance company was charging us for. The screw-ups were amazing.)
Neither the Colonel nor my sister survived.
His bill? $65!!! That’s it!! $65 TOTAL!!!
The friggin’ government then paid for his funeral and buried him for free. His widow now collects his pension, with her estate intact. Unlike my sister (and probably you also) his widow never had to dip into her estate to pay the medical or other bills.
My sister’s bill? After the insurance company paid their obligations, my sister’s estate and my family wrote checks over $30,000!
Pissed? You bet.
Well, that’s life. The government has a plan for the military and its retirees, and the citizen has his. But I told him I thought is was immoral for him to be bitchin’ about FREE medical care, bitcvh about the modest increase in so-payments, and to be demanding MORE, when the very citizens who pay for that medical care, can’t get it for themselves or their own children.
(Sorry for the rant.)
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