This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Veteran Health Care

  • Alabama closing VA centers

    Beretverde sends us a link to the news from Alabama that the state is cutting funding for 17 Veterans Centers while the troops are coming home;

    Because of cuts in state funding the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs is closing veterans service offices in 17 counties on June 1, 2012.

    These are places that veterans can get help applying for disability compensation, pension, and educational assistance even counseling on other benefits.
    Duke Martin of the Blue Star Salute Foundation says the process can be difficult and complex for newly returning veterans and aging veterans who never sought help before.

    “Most things that are associated with the government through paperwork are very complicated and slow,” said Martin.

    Starting June 1, 2012 some veterans could be forced to travel much farther for help regardless of the problems they are facing. Martin thinks the situation is unacceptable.

    Like I’ve been saying, no matter which party is running things, the first thing they cut is veterans’ benefits (the governor of Alabama is a Republican). Every. Time.

  • Senate Committee blocks Tricare hikes

    The Stars & Stripes reports that the Senate Armed Services Committee has agreed with the House committee that this administration shouldn’t raise Tricare fees on veterans and stopped the plan in it’s tracks. However, they didn’t change legislation that will undoubtedly result in higher copays for prescription drugs not dispensed from the Military Treatment Facilities (MTFs)

    Both committees refused to accept the Department of Defense’s plan to raise out-of-pocket costs on military retirees by raising their enrollment fees for Tricare Prime, the managed care benefit; by establishing a first-ever enrollment fee for Tricare Standard, the fee-for-service insurance plan option, or Tricare Extra, the preferred provider network option; and by establishing a first-ever enrollment fee for elderly under Tricare for Life, the prized insurance supplement to Medicare.

    These proposals are dead, at least until after the November elections when lawmakers hope finally to muster the political courage to address the nation’s debt crisis.

    However, DoD may try to recapture what they’ll lose by not hiking Tricare fees by forcing retirees into mail order script services. I’ve had one experience with the prescription service. They sent me and my wife drugs that we didn’t need, wouldn’t let me send the drugs back and continue to bill me for them. The only way to prevent them from ever doing that again is to not pay their bill, so I let their 2 $12 bills rot. I don’t know who signed me up for the service and no one will own up to it, so it will be easy enough for them to force us into their script service if they think they can. Forewarned is forearmed. I still get my prescriptions at the MTF – helping the government keep it’s promise to me.

  • Left in Baghdad

    The folks at SnagFilms asked us to post their video about wounded troops and their families as they adjustment to their new lives after their wounds. The 11 minute video seems to be about 4 years old, but it’s new to me;

    After losing his left arm to an IED while serving in Iraq, American soldier Ross Graydon spends six months rehabilitating at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. LEFT IN BAGHDAD follows Ross as he returns with his wife and daughter to their home in Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. Ross resumes civilian life, never letting his new physical limitations affect his happy-go-lucky attitude. We see Ross outfitted with a new lifelike prosthetic arm, recounting his army experiences with his daughter’s school class and with fellow veterans, experiencing newfound victories like learning to maneuver a slice of pizza with a mechanical hand and optimistically planning for the future by enrolling in college. Both tragic and comic, LEFT IN BAGHDAD is the portrait of a family man meeting the challenges of his new life.

  • That crazy vet with PTSD thing again

    So we get this story, sent to us by Tman from some woman named Amanda Crum at a place called WebProNews. It’s the story of a supposed veteran by the name of Ray Miles who forced his way into WIBW-TV in Topeka, KS to convince the television station to air his grievances against his treatment at the Department of Veterans Affairs. While he was trying to force his way in, some people tried to stop him and he pulled out a knife and stabbed two in their legs. Here’s the video;

    Now, I’m not defending Mr. Miles or condemning the TV station employees, But, I did notice that Mr. Miles is a bit off-balanced, which means that maybe he wasn’t a veteran at all, because the AP story where all of this comes from doesn’t mention that he’s a veteran. At this point, no one really knows if he’s a veteran or not, but they like to say it.

    In fact, he’s homeless and has been for a while and he was asked to leave the shelter where he was staying for violent behavior, according to WIBW. And he’s assaulted a police officer in the recent past. We all know stories of homeless people who try to convince us that they were in the military, and I don’t see anyone checking on Miles’ status. And it looks like no one checked with the VA even, otherwise there might be a quote from the local VA folks.

    But to me the most egregious part of the story is Amanda Crum;

    While the story is disturbing to say the least, it also rings with a sad truth; that veterans who come home with serious emotional and mental issues are often overlooked or even ignored. Many stories have surfaced over the years of deadly prescription pill cocktails being given to veterans to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and unfortunately that seems to be the case all too often when a member of the military seeks help. While it’s not known if Miles was on any medication at the time of the altercation yesterday, officials are aware that Veterans Affairs did play a part in his agitation. Whether or not he will be treated is yet unknown.

    Emphasis is mine.

    It’s not known for certain if Miles was in the military, or if he was taking drugs, or if he has PTS, but that’s not going to stop Ms. Crum from warning us all that the streets are full of drugged up vets each on the cusp of a violent psychotic break.

    I want to warn everyone that the streets are full of doped up, half-witted pseudo-journalists all just waiting to demonstrate how little they know about everything by arriving at completely irrational and unsupported conclusions.

    Ms. Crum, even a cursory internet search would tell you that veterans who suffer from PTS are not likely to be violent or harm people other than themselves. It’s a myth perpetuated by the ignorant rushing to explain things they don’t understand.

  • Oh, good another Biden

    As if one Biden wasn’t enough, now his son, Beau, a member of the Delaware National Guard, is campaigning for the President and he started in Norfolk, the heart of Veteran Country in Virginia, which, according to WVEC is home to 823,000 vets;

    “We’re a group of veterans who believe very strongly that the president should remain our commander in chief. They think he’s been an exceptional commander in chief. I’m one of them. I served in Iraq a couple of years back, and this is a president who understands what it means to be commander in chief,” declared Beau Biden.

    If the presidential candidate can get veterans on board, he has a pretty good shot of winning Virginia’s 13 electoral college votes in November. But not all Hampton Roads vets agree that Obama should be re-elected.

    “I didn’t think he was qualified to take the presidency to begin with, and that was four years ago. And I don’t think he’s gotten any smarter. He’s gotten slicker or slyer, but not smarter,” said retired Naval officer Chris Vatidis who also is not happy with the Obama administration’s proposal to increase Tricare medical fees for vets.

    Biden calls that change “modest.”

    Yeah, if I was rich like the Bidens, I could call the increase “modest”, too, but who’s going to tell those veterans who depend on their meager pensions and live from check-to-check on disability that the increase is “modest”? And any amount of an increase is a broken promise to veterans, no matter how modest.

    “Tricare hasn’t increased in over 16 years. At a time when health care costs are skyrocketing, there’s been no increase in Tricare,” Biden stated.

    That’s why we invested 20 years of our youth into the military system, because we thought it was a good deal. Now that you’ve decided that it’s a good deal too, it’s fine to pull the rug out from under us…all the time smiling and telling us how Obama is doing us a favor. F*ck you very much.

  • There’s going to be a riot at the Milblog Conference; You might want to attend

    I wasn’t going to attend the Milblog Conference for a couple of reasons. They scheduled it for Mothers’ Day weekend for one reason, not that it matters much to me, but when people started raising objections, the folks at Military.com in essence said “Tough shit”. So that pissed me off. And last year they scheduled the reception in the bowels of DC, miles from the hotel where the conference was being held and I didn’t like the logistics of traveling to see the friends I’d come to spend time with. But, I’m an old man and I don’t like change.

    But, anyway, my editors at Business Insiders wanted to go, so I acquiesced for their benefit. And now I’m so glad I did, but there are going to be some unhappy people when they find out my reason. They released the list of panels today, and this one caught my eye;

    Benefits: Promises Delivered, Delayed or Dismissed?

    After a decade plus of combat operations the issue of how we care for our veterans is taking center stage. From changing retirement time frames to medical care and wounded warrior programs, this panel will examine if the promises made to our fighting forces are being delivered, delayed or dismissed.
    Moderator: Rick Maze (Military Times Newspapers)
    Panelists: VADM Norbert R. Ryan, Jr., USN-Ret (MOAA), Tom Tarantino (IAVA), Brandon Friedman (VA), Terry Howell (Military.com), Kristle Helmuth (Author: The Story of a True American Hero, His Princess, and their Struggle with TBI/PTSD), Chazz Pratt (USAA), Mike Brinck (House Veterans Affairs Committee for the Economic Opportunity subcommittee)

    Yeah, Rick Maze is the head cheerleader for Obama at Military Times, he hates the VSOs and got so mad at me when I caught him manufacturing quotes and trying to start a war between the VFW and The American Legion that he blocked my email address.

    And then there’s Brandon Friedman, known to my readers as Beeker from the days he worked at VoteVets. I caught Friedman making excuses for the Obama Administration when the president was trying to force service-connected veterans to buy insurance and he told us not to worry that the Obama Administration didn’t intend to screw veterans. Well, we all know how that worked out, don’t we? Oh, and now Friedman, for his loyalty to the Obama Administration was rewarded with a job at the VA.

    And finally, I’m so happy that IAVA will be there. Maybe I can finally get some answers as to how they can live with themselves after telling veterans that one of the guys (McDermott) who stood on Saddam Hussein’s palace roof and declared that Hussein was more trustworthy than President Bush rated higher on their veterans scorecard than John McCain.

    Yeah, I’m a dick on the internet, but the whole (Milblog) world is about to find out how much of a dick I can be in person. You should go and bring a bucket of popcorn. And since I know that some of those guys monitor the blog, I guess I’m showing my hand, but they can sweat for a week or so, or they can pull out at the last minute (…that’s what she said). But I think they all owe veterans an answer as to why they perpetrated their malfeasance on the veteran community and what they plan to do in this election year to rectify it.

  • Panetta wants to change, but he needs ideas

    Last week, we talked about Leon Panetta and the dilemma in which he finds himself – the fact that the poor fellow lives in California and works in DC and costs the government $32,000 every weekend so he can commute. Chief Tango sends a link to Panetta in the Washington Post who tells Congress that he “regrets” that his trips are so expensive;

    Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Monday that he regrets that his frequent flights home to California on a military jet have cost taxpayers more than $800,000 since July. He gave no indication, however, that he would end the weekend commutes.

    Of course not. Each one of his trips would fund the healthcare of a veteran for life, but he’s made 27 trips this year alone.

    “For 40 years that I’ve been in this town, I’ve gone home because my wife and family are there and because, frankly, I think it’s healthy to get out of Washington periodically just to get your mind straight and your perspective straight,” said Panetta, who maintains a residence with his wife, Sylvia, on their walnut farm in Monterey, Calif.

    Yeah, walnut farms need constant attention, you know, in case gravity doesn’t make the walnuts fall on the ground, or something.

    I sure would have liked to travel home more than once a year when my family was in Panama and I was in Germany, or when my family was in New York and I was in Germany, or when my family was in Vermont and I was in the Middle East, but I couldn’t afford it, and maybe that’s Panetta’s solution.

    If he’d only fly home to his f*cking walnut farm when he could afford to pay the $32,000 for his use of military aircraft, he’d make fewer trips home…ya know like the rest of the people on the planet.

  • Your healthcare costs are rising to pay for Panetta’s trips home

    Two articles in the Stars & Stripes today that kind of tell you how much the Pentagon thinks of your service. In one article, they highlight how your share of healthcare costs are rising;

    “It’s just a slap in the face,” said [Air Force Master Sgt. Floyd Sears, 81] who retired in 1971 and receives $1789 a month in military retirement. “It’s an insult, a real insult, that we would get pushed around like that.”

    The TLF fee, if Congress were to agree to it, would be “tiered” based on level of retired pay. Retirees who draw less than $22,590 a year in military retired pay would pay $35 to enroll in [Tricare for Life (TFL)] for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. The fee would climb annually to reach $150 by 2016. Thereafter it would be adjusted yearly to keep pace with the percentage rise in nationwide health care costs.

    But, the kicker is in the second article, about how Leon Panetta takes his private Secretary of Defense plane back to California every Friday and returns every Sunday night to DC.

    So while retirees are facing unprecedented healthcare cost increases, Panetta can’t spend a few weekends every year in DC and save the taxpayers a few $32,000 trips to California so he can spend the weekend watching his DVR’d primetime shows.