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Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
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Nov 20, 2018 - 10:20am PT
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or they work for a living therefore don't qualify for VA care.
That is not true. ALL veterans have access to medical care. However if you earn income you have to pay some of it. There are 7 (I think?) tiers, I am on tier 7 so I pay some of it. I signed up for VA a couple of years ago to satisfy the Obamacare mandate. My routine care is doe through a community clinic where I also pay. I planned on using VA for catastrophic type situations.
A couple of months ago I got a debilitating pain in my side, I was thinking ruptured appendix, so I went to the emergency room at the VA. Got a CT scan and found out it was a kidney stone. Spent the night in the hospital on morphine and passed the stone overnight and avoided surgery in the morning. I braced my self for the bill when it arrived in the mail, 270 bucks.
Between the community clinic and the VA I am well covered. The care I received at the VA was very good, although I got the sense that the staff (nurses, only saw a doctor briefly) was less experienced than what I saw at Scripps hospital when my friend was in there.
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i'm gumby dammit
Sport climber
da ow
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Nov 20, 2018 - 10:31am PT
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That is not true. ALL veterans have access to medical care. Thanks for clarifying. That was my impression since several of my coworkers are dealing with VA bureaucracies this week.
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Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
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Nov 20, 2018 - 10:40am PT
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Actually you need 3 years of active duty to be qualified for VA, although I do not think that rule applies to Vietnam era vets
yes, service related is always covered
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i'm gumby dammit
Sport climber
da ow
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Nov 20, 2018 - 10:43am PT
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makes sense. i assume it would also apply to a lasting injury received on active duty?
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Nov 20, 2018 - 11:27am PT
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ALL veterans have access to medical care. False
The VA has imposed an income cutoff for care. Basically, unless you have a service connected disability greater than a specified percentage, a veteran's income has to border on the poverty level to qualify for care.
Veterans like me have no ability to access VA care. I do not qualify for VA care because of my income, even though I am a partially-disabled veteran who was injured in a training accident while on active duty.
The VA is essentially for impoverished veterans, dysfunctional vets who can't keep a job, and those who have a disability that is rated greater than a specified percentage.
As I said, most veterans are functional human beings who have a job and also have health insurance. Most vets do not use VA services.
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EdwardT
Trad climber
Retired
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Nov 20, 2018 - 11:44am PT
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Former President Barack Obama said "racism" and "mommy issues," among other contributors, were limiting the country's ability to make progress on everything from education to climate change.
Obama, speaking at the Obama Foundation Summit on Monday night, said the answers already exist to solve many of the problems facing both the U.S. and the world, but that the nation was not making progress "because we are still confused, blind, shrouded with hate, anger, racism, mommy issues."
The crowd laughed following Obama's remark, which came as he was explaining why he thought less was being done to combat climate change.
Bummer
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Jim Clipper
climber
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Nov 20, 2018 - 11:50am PT
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The mother....!
meh? What do you expect from a Hawaii guy. Barry, the island is calling you home. How about a digital branch of the presidential library, where ever the popolo are. Try come home...
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Gimp
Trad climber
Missoula, MT & "Pourland", OR
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Nov 20, 2018 - 11:52am PT
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Sierra Ledge Rat is correct.
There are 8 priority groups in the VA system that are based what dates you served, time served, combat exposure and a variety of other factors.
If you are in a low priority group your income level and net worth play a significant factor.
Like most government programs there is a complex formula and complex slow process to determine your status in the system.
Steve
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Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
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Nov 20, 2018 - 11:54am PT
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False
The VA has imposed an income cutoff for care. Basically, unless you have a service connected disability greater than a specified percentage, a veteran's income has to border on the poverty level
I filled out a form and disclosed my income and assets, I am no where near poverty level. I am in tier 7, maybe they screwed up?
edit: Just started researching it and noticed this
Net Worth Information No Longer Required
In January 2015, VA eliminated the use of net worth information as a determining factor for eligibility and copayment responsibilities. VA will only consider a Veteran’s gross household income and deductible expenses from the previous year. This change makes VA health care benefits more affordable to lower- income Veterans who have no service-connected condition or other qualifying factors.
Here is an online calculator that can be used to determine if a veteran is eligible http://hbexplorer.vacloud.us/
According to the online tool the income limit is over 50k for a single veteran.
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Nov 20, 2018 - 12:14pm PT
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The VA is definitely not the system on which we should base national health care.
No, no, no.
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EdwardT
Trad climber
Retired
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Nov 20, 2018 - 12:31pm PT
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How about Medicare for everyone, with supplemental policies for anyone willing to pay?
If yes, then how do we get there?
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apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
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Nov 20, 2018 - 12:32pm PT
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I think I'd be down with that. It's a step in the right direction, anyway.
Getting the insurance industry out of the picture is a steep hill to climb, though.
I have a feeling that Medicare for all could actually fly in Congress...
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the Fet
climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
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Nov 20, 2018 - 01:35pm PT
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One insurance plan to rule them all.
I'd be down too. I'd be up for medicare with a small % copay. 1-10% or so based on income with a yearly cap so people would shop for the best deals on care, and wouldn't get service unnecessarily if they have a financial stake in the decision. For example if it's free to them some people will just take the ambulance to the hospital, a $2,700 bill, instead of drive (this kind of stuff already happens). But if they paid say 5%, that's $135. If you really needed it you happily pay the $135, but if you could just drive instead it would save you $135.
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 20, 2018 - 05:32pm PT
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Since you gentlemen bring up the subject of Medicare, let me share a brief review of what I experienced in 2017. I'm quite positive overall.
At age 65 Americans with a work history, get to enjoy “free” medical care, thanks to Medicare.
I signed up for parts A, B, D, & supplemental insurance.
The good parts are incredible! I had knee surgery for a torn meniscus last November & the total charges for everything related to it were around $26,000.00. Other than local travel expenses & some cheap prescription drugs, I paid zero.
However!
Medicare Part A, which is hospital insurance is free to folks who qualify.
Medicare part B, which is optional health insurance costs $134.00 monthly, which is deducted from your Social Security benefit. There is also a yearly deductable of $183.00, which Medicare Part B does not cover. Also Medicare Part B does not cover all your Physician costs, so careful folks with some money also often buy:
Supplemental health insurance through an insurance company, which covers almost all, but not always all charges not-covered by Medicare part B.
My supplementary Health Insurance is $114.10 monthly.
Medicare Part D for prescription drugs costs me $26.60 monthly & is mostly a money loser for me. A Bush II Republican idea to make insurance companies some more money. If you don’t buy it & later need expensive prescription drugs & enroll, there are “huge” penalties for not having bought it when starting Medicare.
So--------for those who are still following this:
2017, I had Physician, hospital, & drug medical bills of roughly $30,000.00. (Please bear in mind I am nearly a poster-geezer for Basil Cell skin cancer & rack up some impressive charges at my Dermatologist every year.)
I paid roughly $3,500.00 to Medicare, my health & drug insurers, & paid around $300.00 for stuff not covered.
In theory the other $26,200.00 came out of money my employers & I paid in to Medicare in my 45 or so years of paying Medicare.
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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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Nov 20, 2018 - 05:37pm PT
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Again, Obamacare is a monstrocity designed to please health insurance companies.
It's possible to design a single payer system with private providers of services and mixed (depending on a state) private/public administration of services that can be supported by majority of American voters and majority of American politicians.
Obamacare was designed to get through congress. Maybe some day a single payer system could make it into law.
In the 90s, Dems tried to pass a universal health system that would also adress cost and it failed. The industrial health care complex was just too powerful. As were Republicans that were more interested in partisan victories than people's welfare.
Obamacare was designed to actually provide health care to millions of Americans that didn't have it. They had to pay off the insurance industry in order to do it.
Sad that this is what passes for progress in the US but it is what it is.
It took every last non-republican in the Senate to pass. Every last one of those Senators had a veto that an insurance company lobbyist could leverage.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
Sands Motel , Las Vegas
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Nov 20, 2018 - 11:17pm PT
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It's irritating to hear conservatives whining about Obamacare when it was their party that sat on their ass and did nothing to help make the health care act viable...Typical chicken sh#t politics from the duck and cover republican party...
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dirtbag
climber
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Nov 21, 2018 - 05:41am PT
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^^^100%^^^
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EdwardT
Trad climber
Retired
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Nov 21, 2018 - 05:46am PT
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Washington (CNN)Justice Sonia Sotomayor in an interview with CNN's David Axelrod said that Justice Brett Kavanaugh was welcomed into the Supreme Court "family" in the wake of his polarizing confirmation process.
"When you're charged with working together for most of the remainder of your life, you have to create a relationship," Sotomayor said in an "Axe Files" interview airing Saturday.
"The nine of us are now a family and we're a family with each of us our own burdens and our own obligations to others, but this is our work family, and it's just as important as our personal family.
"We've probably spent more time with each other than most justices spend, who have spouses, with their spouses," she added.
Kavanaugh, who has served since being confirmed early last month, had his confirmation thrown into doubt after a tense Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in September in which California professor Christine Blasey Ford alleged the Supreme Court nominee had sexually assaulted her when they were in high school in the 1980s. Kavanaugh denied the allegations against him.
Sotomayor said despite the contentious confirmation, she told Kavanaugh that the focus on him will settle on his actions as part of the court.
"It was Justice (Clarence) Thomas who tells me that when he first came to the Court, another justice approached him and said, 'I judge you by what you do here. Welcome.' And I repeated that story to Justice Kavanaugh when I first greeted him here," she said.
Thomas was accused of sexual harassment after being nominated in 1991 and also narrowly confirmed by the Senate.
Sotomayor, who was first confirmed to the court in 2009, also pushed back on the notion that Kavanaugh's presence cements a conservative tilt on the Court -- an institution she said is above "political terms."
"Conservative, liberal, those are political terms," she said. "Do I suspect that I might be dissenting a bit more? Possibly, but I still have two relatively new colleagues, one very new colleague, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. And we've agreed in quite a few cases, we've disagreed in a bunch, But you know, let's see."
When asked modern political discourse, Sotomayor said too large of an emphasis has been put on differences rather than common "human values."
"We all have families we love, we all care about others, we care about our country, and we care when people are injured," she told Axelrod. "And unfortunately, the current conversation often forgets that. It forgets our commonalities and focuses on superficial differences whether those are language or how people look or the same God they pray to but in different ways.
"Those differences truly are not important," she added. "What is important is those human values we share and those human feelings that we share. But I worry that we forget about that too often.
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apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
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Nov 21, 2018 - 08:40am PT
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""It was Justice (Clarence) Thomas who tells me that when he first came to the Court, another justice approached him and said, 'I judge you by what you do here. Welcome.'"
Well, the proof will lie in the pudding, won't it? Kavanaugh may likely have an opportunity to show whether he's truly an independent thinker, or was a carefully chosen GOP-droid to rule in Trump's favor if/when his case(s) land in front of the SCOTUS.
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Lituya
Mountain climber
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Nov 21, 2018 - 11:41am PT
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Well, the proof will lie in the pudding, won't it? Kavanaugh may likely have an opportunity to show whether he's truly an independent thinker, or was a carefully chosen GOP-droid to rule in Trump's favor if/when his case(s) land in front of the SCOTUS.
Like Breyer, and Kagan? (and Sotomayor TBD.) If they're really "independent thinkers," they have yet to show it. Breyer's siding with the liberal majority in Kelo was unforgivable. Ditto Ginsburg--but she has clarity from time to time.
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