OT VA benefits question

[Otto]

I know there are alot of veterans here: do VA benefits satisfy the requirements of the new mandatory health insurance nonsense?

[jnyork]

Who knows??

Remember, even Nancy Pelosi didn't know what was in the bill, she said we will have to pass the bill in order to find out what's in it!!

It will take years to get you a proper answer to your question, I'm guessing.

[madman4570]

Got to believe YES!
Otherwise, Holly Cow are there going to be some REAL MAD Vets!

[pwl44m]

I'll bet the big O can't even answer that. I can't even get VA medical because I make too much money (and that is on disability) Uncle Sam took away the one benifit He promised Me on Induction. I guess that belonged on another topic Sorry ! Perry in Bangor Ca.

[Hobie]

Reportedly, TRICARE meets the requirements but I have heard that VA benefits do not.

[Newtmaker]

I am retired Navy and currently drawing retired military pay and SocSec. When I turned 65 my prime medical became Medicare but the Tri-Care benefits that I used to pay for became a permanent Medicare suppliment at no charge. It has proven to be a first rate program in the area I live. Accepted everywhere and payments are never a problem with the providers. HOWEVER, the rumors are rampant as to what will happen soon. The biggest concern is that many believe that next year we, vets, will start being charged income tax based on the assumed value of the benefit. Some gueses are as high a 15,000 per year!
As was stated earlier, no one really knows, and with all the legal actions currently ongoing and probably yet to come, it may never be implemented. We only have to wait!!!

Walt

[Hobie]

I am retired Navy and currently drawing retired military pay and SocSec. When I turned 65 my prime medical became Medicare but the Tri-Care benefits that I used to pay for became a permanent Medicare suppliment at no charge. It has proven to be a first rate program in the area I live. Accepted everywhere and payments are never a problem with the providers. HOWEVER, the rumors are rampant as to what will happen soon. The biggest concern is that many believe that next year we, vets, will start being charged income tax based on the assumed value of the benefit. Some gueses are as high a 15,000 per year!
As was stated earlier, no one really knows, and with all the legal actions currently ongoing and probably yet to come, it may never be implemented. We only have to wait!!!

Walt

You are referring to Tricare for Life, correct?

[Ray Newman]

As others posted, no one really knows.

Earlier this year, I read on military.com that a few House members introduced or were going to introduce or co-sponsored legislation to would exempt TriCare from the mandatory health insurance provision. But since then, I haven’t read anything more.

As far as VA medical coverage, that I know nothing about. Per the VA, I am 100% disabled and I haven’t heard anything from the VA or the veterans’ service organization (or its publication) that I belong to about any of this.

[Newtmaker]

I am retired Navy and currently drawing retired military pay and SocSec. When I turned 65 my prime medical became Medicare but the Tri-Care benefits that I used to pay for became a permanent Medicare suppliment at no charge. It has proven to be a first rate program in the area I live. Accepted everywhere and payments are never a problem with the providers. HOWEVER, the rumors are rampant as to what will happen soon. The biggest concern is that many believe that next year we, vets, will start being charged income tax based on the assumed value of the benefit. Some gueses are as high a 15,000 per year!
As was stated earlier, no one really knows, and with all the legal actions currently ongoing and probably yet to come, it may never be implemented. We only have to wait!!!

Walt

You are referring to Tricare for Life, correct?

Yes, that is what they call it. So far I have been extremely happy with what I get from it.

Walt

[jeepnik]

Got to believe YES!
Otherwise, Holly Cow are there going to be some REAL MAD Vets!

Since when has angering vets been a problem for D.C. Does anyone else know of the "bonus marchers" and how a certain famous general dealt with them?

[Blaine]

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123162020

But, who knows......the above is about what they said at the VA center I go to. Remember, OhBummer wanted wounded service members to assume a portion of their health care.

[Ray Newman]

“Remember, OhBummer wanted wounded service members to assume a portion of their health care.”
--Blaine

In a nutshell, not really true. Several veterans organizations service officers told me that the e-mail about this is bogus. What the VA has been doing or trying to do for several years is determine if a vet has private insurance and if so, bill the private carrier for part of his/her care. I am rated 100%service connected and receive my health care at Madigan and VA American Lake. At no time have I been told that I would need to pay for any care or carry private insurance coverage to receive treatment. Now , if the vet is not service connected and goes to the VA treatment, different regulations apply.

[Blaine]

“Remember, OhBummer wanted wounded service members to assume a portion of their health care.”
--Blaine

In a nutshell, not really true. Several veterans organizations service officers told me that the e-mail about this is bogus. What the VA has been doing or trying to do for several years is determine if a vet has private insurance and if so, bill the private carrier for part of his/her care. I am rated 100%service connected and receive my health care at Madigan and VA American Lake. At no time have I been told that I would need to pay for any care or carry private insurance coverage to receive treatment. Now , if the vet is not service connected and goes to the VA treatment, different regulations apply.

That's what I said...the article I linked to sez just that.....

As far as Obama wanting Vets to pay for care, read this...Even CNN accused him of it and the head of the VA confirmed it...

http://www.infowars.com/obama-wants-vet ... -injuries/

[donw]

yes jeepnik...it was Douglas MacArthur...he ordered his cavalry to burn them out that was in Washington DC in 1921 as i recall my history.

VA benefits are not easy to get...I've been put on low priority because i did not try to get them earlier AND, i make too much...even on social security!

[Otto]

yes jeepnik...it was Douglas MacArthur...he ordered his cavalry to burn them out that was in Washington DC in 1921 as i recall my history.

Major Patton was there, too. Of course, it was MacArthur who ignored instructions from the President, to cease the attack. So unlike him to defy orders.

VA benefits are not easy to get...I've been put on low priority because i did not try to get them earlier AND, i make too much...even on social security!

I spent 12 years on active duty in the navy and, during the time I reference, had been in the army national guard for 4 years, with two deployments under my belt. At that time I had no VA benefits. My father, who spent two years in the navy during the late 1950's, got a letter from the VA to come in for a complete physical, and monthly checkups, and all kinds of other things. They bent over backwards for him, and told me to pound sand. A little inequitable.

[Ray Newman]

Blaine: the issue was if the vet had private insurance, the VA would bill them for part of the service connected care. And if the vet didn’t have private insurance, the vet would still be treated for service connected injuries w/o cost to the vet.

Somehow this was interpreted as the VA requiring the vet to buy private insurance, which was not the case as some of disabled vets are non-insurable due to their injuries or the premium is/would be cost prohibitive.

[jeepnik]

Blaine: the issue was if the vet had private insurance, the VA would bill them for part of the service connected care. And if the vet didn’t have private insurance, the vet would still be treated for service connected injuries w/o cost to the vet.

Somehow this was interpreted as the VA requiring the vet to buy private insurance, which was not the case as some of disabled vets are non-insurable due to their injuries or the premium is/would be cost prohibitive.

All this may be true. But remember, vets at one time wrote a blank check to this country, for anything up to and including their life. The country in return promised to provide certain benefits. Now that times are a bit hard, economically, the country want's to back pedal. I think it's important to be right in the elected officials face about this, especially when one considers the benefits they get for sitting in an air conditioned building with servants to bring them coffee and donuts, while the vets put up with all manner of "inconveniencies", like bleeding and such.

[adirondakjack]

Reportedly, TRICARE meets the requirements but I have heard that VA benefits do not.

I suspect you are correct. For those vets who OPT OUT of insurance at work and are not rated with a service-connected disability, the VA benefits have always been a thing SAM wanted gone. I suspect part of the cost savings they figure on is getting those folks insured.... Heck, I know a lawyer who has used his VA benefits for medical for many years. I do think Obama wants him to buy insurance.

[adirondakjack]

Blaine: the issue was if the vet had private insurance, the VA would bill them for part of the service connected care. And if the vet didn’t have private insurance, the vet would still be treated for service connected injuries w/o cost to the vet.

Somehow this was interpreted as the VA requiring the vet to buy private insurance, which was not the case as some of disabled vets are non-insurable due to their injuries or the premium is/would be cost prohibitive.

All this may be true. But remember, vets at one time wrote a blank check to this country, for anything up to and including their life. The country in return promised to provide certain benefits. Now that times are a bit hard, economically, the country want's to back pedal. I think it's important to be right in the elected officials face about this, especially when one considers the benefits they get for sitting in an air conditioned building with servants to bring them coffee and donuts, while the vets put up with all manner of "inconveniencies", like bleeding and such.

Uncle sam has been weaseling out of his "deal" with me and millions like me for decades. When I first got out of service, i could and did just show up at a VAMC and got whatever I needed including surgery.... Cost me NOTHING because I didn't have insurance. then came co-pays for drugs, then co-pays for visits, then bigger co-pays, then limited services unless ya had a service-connected disability..... The time is rapidly coming where if ya ain't service-connected, they won't see ya EXCAPT if ya got a PTSD diagnosis, and are an addict, have AIDS, etc, then they "make" ya service-connected...

[Ray Newman]

Jeepnik: yeah, tell me about those promises. When the USMC retired me in 1968 as a result disability (bilateral above the knee amputations), I was told that for the rest of my life that I, my spouse, and any children under age 18 would access to no-cost medical at any DOD facility. Well, that was a lie --in 1953, the law was changed to treat on a space available, then changed to terminate coverage at age 65 and go on Medicare. Early as 1953, DOD and the US Gov't knew that it made and was still making promises that were impossible/almost impossible to keep and kept very quiet about it. And of course over the years, there have been changes to CHAMPUS, which morphed into TriCare and ‘gawd only knows’ what’s next.

Otto: sounds like your father applied for and/or had a service connected disability? That’s the key: service-connected disbaility opens the door and without it is very hard to get in at times.

“The time is rapidly coming where if ya ain't service-connected, they won't see ya….”
--Adirondack Jack

Jack more than a few year ago, I worked for the VA and have been under the VA compensation, medical and prosthetics systems since ‘68. If I recall correctly from my training at the VA and from what I was told, the VA was originally set up to only treat service connected disabilities and a vet w/o the service connection had to be just about indigent before the VA would treat him/her.

[Otto]

Otto: sounds like your father applied for and/or had a service connected disability? That’s the key: service-connected disbaility opens the door and without it is very hard to get in at times.

Nope, he never had had any contact with the VA, and had no service-connected disability. I think he has two now, one for his back and one for his hearing. I need to verify. I, on the other hand, was attempting to prove service-connection for two bulging discs. I had much difficulty, in part because I had no specific event to blame. I never had slipped in the shower, felt a pinch while lifting a fridge, nothing. I eventually did get the service-connection, but before that I basically had no benefits. He received his service-connection as a result of his other benefits. He was operated on twice, and he still does nothing to preserve his back, lifts things he shouldn't, lifts improperly, et cetera. He keeps going back, and they keep treating him.