VA Health Care is not Free Health Care necessarily. Is that a surprise?

Day 49 of President Bone-spurs second term.

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Portland VA Hospital pictured above. Big city VA hospitals are all big and kinda similar looking.

Just a short explainer about VA health care. People are nervous for our veterans for good reasons and may be wondering about just what is offered to veterans and who pays anyway? Below are some numbers about cuts offered by a veteran organization. Since Elon has no idea what he’s done, or doing, or likely to do this has been said at one point, given for possible scope of cuts.

One is entitled to be seen at a VA facility if you’ve served in the military and have been discharged but not dishonorably. Convoluted but there are different ways to exit the military and dishonorable is the obvious fail test, your eligibility for benefits will be denied.

Article.

Before you can make an appointment they need to know your eligibility. They figure out if you are eligible and what tier of medical billing you will receive. Everyone gets pretty much the same care like in any medical group. Eligibility is more about how that care is paid for to the VA. The government does not endlessly fund the VA healthcare system.

The VA system generally is run like the military in many ways. On the inside, people are respectful of one another’s service and treat each other with that respect knowing if they are in bad shape, they aren’t left behind but supported. Always. There will be a shoulder to lean on coming from the parking lot. A kinder ear, helping with meds. No one is left behind. The system is one of the few places a person can get mental health help with PTSD specialists and counseling help of many kinds.

Not a perfect system and treatments can often be, how can one say, not cutting edge. No cancer trials likely but one never can be sure till it’s your situation.

There have been internal battles to recognize certain illness as service related affecting elegibility. A money thing. A thing of recognizing harm and responsibility. The VA seems to limit what’s offered generally as insurance companies also do and don’t like to dole out money they see as excessive. Our Luigi moment in NY about insurance CEO’s is not an unrelated problem in insurance that also grips the VA. A separate but important issue not covered more fully here.

Going forward, for a look, a vet wanting to enroll in the VA healthcare system, the process isn’t much more difficult than applying for a credit card but the wait time may be longer to process.

If you’re eligible to use it the VA hospital and medical care, it functions like any medical group except it is not run on a for profit business model. As a whole it does however do business and take payments for their patients from private companies and Medicare too.

One pays for visits and tests on a sliding scale, depending on your ability to pay. Insurance can be used to offset payments. Again, depending on all financial factors the VA will pay, private insurance may supplement, Medicare may be used as a supplement, or a copay may be needed. This gets complicated and really, when you enter the system, this is exactly what gets sorted out.

Not all veterans want to be in that healthcare system and rely on private insurance and local physicians or perhaps they got employment somewhere else after their service and use that insurance. It’s a personal choice.

Eligibility is a word one hears time and time again, it’s an extension of the military in how it functions on that side of medicine. On the physician side, not all personnel were once enlisted. Same also for all employees, and paid by the federal government.

There are 170 medical centers and 1,193 outpatient clinics to serve people closer to their homes. Together these facilities are part of the Veterans Health Administration, the largest integrated health care system in the United States.

Here’s more on what the army says to potential recruits. Keep in mind the VA serves all branches, including the Coast Guard.

A link to the rest of the article.

It’s not just soldiers, it’s our military that has come home.

I hope that tells more and gives you more information with which to fight against the fascist coup in our once beautiful democratically run country.

Our collective mission is to discharge the drama.

Thanks for being here. I wouldn’t be here without you.

❤️