Injured military veterans and private insurance

[UGAalum94]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/...lth.insurance/

Can someone explain to me why this would be a good idea?

Is it a short term issue of getting the costs off the VA or a long term issue of making a federal health care plan more attractive by making more private insurers less profitable?

It just baffles me. How can the cost of health care from wounds during active duty be rightly shifted onto later coverage providers?

Who has more insight or information?

[waiting12345]

I'm baffled by this too and haven't found any thorough information on the logic of the changes. I know the VA has a lot a failings, but i think private insurance has just as many.

I'd love to hear an analysis of this.

[Munchkin03]

I think the VA system has more failings than private insurance, but that's just been my experience. Most veterans I know who can pick and choose what they have their VA doctor treat and what they have their civilian doctor address. I know not everyone has the privilege of private health care or a great doctor who can walk you through the things that the VA physicians can't, but there you go.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

I think the VA system has more failings than private insurance, but that's just been my experience.

Truth.

[alum]

Both Tricare and VA has always treated our family well...but we never had relatives who suffered combat-related injuries. I have been extremely happy with the care at NNMC and WRAMC for all our issues.

[Coramoor]

This was shot down within the last day or so.

I can't believe it didn't make a bigger stink. I mean, here BO is trying the royally screw over the men and women risking life and limb...and there is hardly a whisper from the MSM.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by alum

Both Tricare and VA has always treated our family well...but we never had relatives who suffered combat-related injuries.

Honestly? That makes all the difference. If you've spent the better part of your post-military adult life dealing with private insurance, the shift to the VA--I can't speak for Tricare--is a jolt to say the least.

[alum]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

Honestly? That makes all the difference. If you've spent the better part of your post-military adult life dealing with private insurance, the shift to the VA--I can't speak for Tricare--is a jolt to say the least.

I have only had military medical care for over 2 decades. There are some hassles but overall the care for our family has been quite good.

[AGDee]

I know Vietnam vets with combat related injuries who got awful care through the VA system. Not to mention, a lot of VA hospitals have closed so they have to travel pretty far for their care as well.

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by alum

I have only had military medical care for over 2 decades. There are some hassles but overall the care for our family has been quite good.

And I believe Munchkin grew up in a military household (Munchkin: correct me if I'm wrong), so she probably also knows what she's talking about. Just because you've had good experiences with this doesn't mean that there aren't issues with the VA system.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by alum

I have only had military medical care for over 2 decades. There are some hassles but overall the care for our family has been quite good.

Whoa, turn it down a notch. Note that I said I couldn't speak for Tricare, but that the VA is more problematic than most of your typical private insurers. You said yourself that you weren't familiar with how the VA works for those with service-related illnesses and injuries.

My father has combat-related injuries. He has private insurance from his civilian life, but since his illnesses are related to his service, he has access to the VA hospitals which are supposed to treat those specific injuries and illnesses. Sometimes he goes to the VA clinic, but for most of the big ones--including cancer--he has chosen to be treated by his own doctor and pay for it with private insurance, even though the VA would be free. VA clinics are woefully understaffed and often treat many, many people over a large geographic area. If you had the choice between going to a doctor in an office close to your home, and driving at least an hour to go to a crowded clinic to see a doctor (or more likely a physician's assistant) for 15 minutes, which would you pick?

It's not right that it's come to this. My dad can do this because he has private insurance. Many others in his siutation don't have that luxury.

[AKA_Monet]

From what the clinicians told me is there is just not enough trained and licensed staff at the VA to treat the array of combat-related injuries. There are more privately trained and licensed clinicians to treat the series of injuries.

This sounds like a case of HMO's trying to get into the game. But I am sorry, Kaiser does not have triage care that VA is accustomed to. Since you have to be military to be a part of the VA, then the number of people paying into the system is not as high as say an mass HMO system like Kaiser, Regence Blue Shield, etc.

While I do think ALL service personnel EARNED appropriate medical care and we should pay for it, the question is how? There just are not enough studies as to how this will work--the aftercare, etc. I do know there is a study are few years ago that was published in NEJM of how triage care improved in Iraq and how the clinicians trained for it from LA County Hospital, but, I have not seen the progression course of aftercare for combat-related injuries outside of intention to treat SOP's...

My guess, if the injury is not loss of limb, and starts with PTSD, if minimally treated like HMO's do, the stress becomes overwhelming to the point that something in the body actually does become afflicted early than later--assuming combat duty is an inexplicable, unexplainable overwhelming trauma...

I would like to see what the IAVA has to say about it.

[alum]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

Whoa, turn it down a notch. Note that I said I couldn't speak for Tricare, but that the VA is more problematic than most of your typical private insurers. You said yourself that you weren't familiar with how the VA works for those with service-related illnesses and injuries.

My father has combat-related injuries. He has private insurance from his civilian life, but since his illnesses are related to his service, he has access to the VA hospitals which are supposed to treat those specific injuries and illnesses. Sometimes he goes to the VA clinic, but for most of the big ones--including cancer--he has chosen to be treated by his own doctor and pay for it with private insurance, even though the VA would be free. VA clinics are woefully understaffed and often treat many, many people over a large geographic area. If you had the choice between going to a doctor in an office close to your home, and driving at least an hour to go to a crowded clinic to see a doctor (or more likely a physician's assistant) for 15 minutes, which would you pick?

It's not right that it's come to this. My dad can do this because he has private insurance. Many others in his siutation don't have that luxury.

I was only speaking from personal experience so that's why I qualified my statements both times by writing "our family" in my posts.

We do choose to use an MTF that is about 45-90 minutes away depending on traffic. Recently I had to go there on a daily basis during rush hour for about 6 weeks. We could go on the economy to our various doctors and specialists but having all our medical needs addressed at one facility where the specialists work together AND not having to deal with insurance paperwork.co-payments, etc was and is the ideal decision for our family.

That all being said, I do not believe that all VA Hospitals are of equal caliber and I absolutely do believe that not all servicemembers are receiving the care they deserve ie the WRAMC expose.

[epchick]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

My father has combat-related injuries. He has private insurance from his civilian life, but since his illnesses are related to his service, he has access to the VA hospitals which are supposed to treat those specific injuries and illnesses. Sometimes he goes to the VA clinic, but for most of the big ones--including cancer--he has chosen to be treated by his own doctor and pay for it with private insurance, even though the VA would be free. VA clinics are woefully understaffed and often treat many, many people over a large geographic area. If you had the choice between going to a doctor in an office close to your home, and driving at least an hour to go to a crowded clinic to see a doctor (or more likely a physician's assistant) for 15 minutes, which would you pick?

Your dad and mine sound like they are in a very similar position. My dad was in Vietnam and has had combat-related injuries since. He's been pushed around the VA system for years, and still hasn't gotten the treatment he needs for Agent Orange. A few years ago he FINALLY was able to get his back & neck surgery he desperately needed (he was a paratrooper and suffered severe nerve and bone damage). Now he's suffering complications from those surgeries, but everytime he gets an appointment at VA, it either gets cancelled or postponed (and it's always scheduled 6 months or longer away).

My dad does get private insurance from his job, but he doesn't want to use just when he gets "VA benefits" and now he's finally starting to realize that VA is crap.

IDK if this is VA or just veteran's benefits in general, but anyone who has family that are recently retired (or about to be retired) need to make sure that the gov't/VA (i'll have to ask my dad which one it is) acknowledges your marriage, and acknowledges your children (and whether or not they are in college). My mom & dad got married when I was 5....and not until this year has VA acknowledged their marriage. Not only that, but they never acknowledged that I was in college, thus my dad never got the benefits he gets for having children in college. My dad had been hounding them EVERY year I was in college and it wasn't until I graduated that they decided "oh yeah, your daughter was in college, sorry" but they'll only give him 1 year worth of back $ that he deserves.

[ASTalumna06]

The fact is, this issue shouldn't even have been raised. When have you ever heard someone, contemplating where their tax money was going, say, "Damn, all of those veterans are getting my hard earned money... this needs to be stopped!" Exactly, it sounds crazy.

There are many problems with billing private insurance companies for service members' injuries. Businesses could view employees who serve as a cause for their premiums to go up. Some companies might shy away from hiring service members at all. And for those people who purchase their own insurance, they may simply not be able to afford it, especially with the very real possibility that their rates will be higher because they're in the military. Also, veterans and their families could risk maxing out their benefits paying for these costly treatments.

The fact is, the military (aka the government) is sending these people into harm's way. Therefore, the government should be paying to treat veterans. Is it a perfect system? Of course not. But to suggest that we, as citizens of the U.S., should no longer support our veterans and give them treatment that they desperately need is absolutely ridiculous.