11B3XCIB said:
I do have the ability to obtain free health care at the VA if I do so choose. However, the wait to get seen is upwards of two months here at the Columbia WJB Dorn VA for primary care.
At that rate it might be quicker to transfer your PC team to the Charleston VA; between the clinics in all three counties close by and the hospital itself the only appointments I've had to wait for more than a week were the disability evaluation specialists (ENTs).
They also are loathe to prescribe pain medication, which for the conditions I was separated from the Army, is a necessity. I have a plan with Blue Cross Blue Shield and use it primarily for prescriptions and my pain management appointments. Our rates have gone up so far about $480 a year.
Private docs are having the same issues. Drug-seeking has increased tenfold (I don't have actual stats on that, just anecdotes from docs I know) and lots and LOTS of returning vets are having pain issues. Pain management without opioids generally sucks, and folks who are addicted to opioids and/or narcotic pain meds are often asymptomatic otherwise (as opposed to liver issues or lung issues with drinkers and smokers), making it hard to detect addictions.
It's not that I feel "poor people" shouldn't have healthcare; I just think it's not a fundamental right. This country is a constitutional republic in that it doesn't provide for people, but it provides the OPPORTUNITY for people, which is what a lot of people these days have forgotten. It's "what can I get for free" versus "what can I work towards".
Personally, and until now I really haven't advocated my own opinion, I think it is a travesty that the richest nation in the world (still) cannot provide its citizens with a minimum level of health care. Add to that the fact that HC in the US costs multiples of what it should due to fraud, waste, abuse, and profiteering, and our HC system is just pitiful for everyone but the few who can afford the "Cadillac" plans or are otherwise independently wealthy. Sure, folks come to the US to get stuff done at the best clinics in the world... Rich folks. Just like here, if you've got money, you can see the specialist you want. If not, you're left with whatever your HMO/PPO/pocketbook can afford or is 'in network'.
Having said that, I don't think the ACA is a great, or even good, solution. I was one of those advocating for a single-payer system. Sure, in some places you have shortages... but then again, women in the UK can get breast implants on the NHS if they get a diagnosis that their self-esteem suffers without (
Daily Mail link,
UK Netdoctor). Folks talk about Canada and the UK, but no one ever mentions Japan. Japan has a national health service too - instead of employers paying a portion of employees' premiums to private insurance companies, they pay it to the government. The government uses that economy of scale to pay for the health system. Due to that, the premium/tax per person is much less. When I lived there, I had to buy-in to the system to use it, and as I wasn't technically employed (student) I had to pay full rate of what an employer would pay for me... about $700/year. That is for full coverage no deductible no fees ever for anything medically required including meds, and when I needed a doc I got to see one same day or next day at latest. The average premium subsidy most US employers pay per worker to their insurance plan is about $4,000 (
http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/single-coverage/), and that still leaves the worker with their portion of the premium + copays + caps + meds.
I like the
idea of universal health care for citizens. I accept that in order to pay for such a thing, everyone must have insurance or pay something into the system for the privilege of not having a plan (like in Massachusetts, where this idea was pushed by Romney and is working pretty well). I do not really like how the government wonks have decided to pay for this program, because in the end I think it will end up screwing people over just as bad as the current system - our government can f@#k anything up.
I do not like that the system we currently have is rife with problems, and instead of sweeping away and rebuilding we're just patching potholes, and I'm talking about the ACA and Tort Reform and Medicare/Medicaid etc. - all of it.
In terms of welfare in general, well, I work with a lot of poor people. I mean dirt poor. I don't meet many that aren't working some way or another. Folks that are on housing assistance, and food aid, and medicare(aid?) in many cases because they're that poor. None of them are really gaming the system for free stuff (although I have yet to meet someone with an Obama/Reagan free phone). I don't meet many of the stereotypical 'welfare mothers' and there's a lot of talk among attorneys that serve the impoverished that that stereotype is fictional. Not to say that some folks don't game the system - far from it.
And I feel like having served my country for a decade, several of those years in a war, that constitutes having "earned" the benefit rather than just being born and possibly qualifying for government subsidies in the form of health care, phones, housing, you name it.
And despite having "earned" the ability to get treated for free with no costs at the VA, I choose to pay for private insurance.
You can remove the quotes from around the word earned - no one (within sanity) will argue that vets have paid for their benefits in advance. Those folks who do argue for cutting vet benefits are neither rational or ethical, regardless of political party.