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To: skinowski who wrote (66170)	6/13/2007 8:50:43 PM
From: Lee Lichterman III	Read Replies (6) \| Respond to of 116555

Regarding - " Another redundancy is the VA health care system. Most Vets over 65 have Medicare, and often still go to the VA...." That is because as Vets, we were under paid, over worked and risked life and limb due to the promise of free life long health care that others could not get at the time. In the government catch-22 logic, benefits starting eroding and the the way things work now is that the Govt. makes it so that it is either hard to use any benefits promised or better alternatives are offered on a carrot stick until enough bite that they can cut it, then when use drops, they say, "see it isn't needed because it isn't being used" so they cut it further. When I signed up, we were promised free dental and medical for life for ourselves and our families. Dental disappeared for families other than an insurance plan that many minimum wage employee get and is all but useless (delta dental plan). Then they stopped treating families at many base hospitals and referred them downtown. Due to use dropping, they killed on base hospitals and turned them into "clinics" with limited hours, facilities and abilities. Now they are sending active duty downtown as well and even some clinics are closing. On Edwards AFB, a VERY isolated base, we have no emergency room, it is a 45 minute drive downtown to the AV Hospital. Like all government stats, they doctor things up ( pardon the pun) so that it looks like this has had no effect but I can tell you there have been cases where people didn't make it downtown in time and are now taking dirt naps. Dental is all but gone, and it is getting worse as they look to save more money. The military is now trying to convince congress to close all military treatment and refer to civilian care and only have enough medical staff to treat combat locations. Say goodbye to all care then. In short, I think any vet would be nuts not to tax the VA as much as possible, even to the extent as to going in for sniffles to ensure they can't claim that use is dropping and thus VA care in unneeded. With a Medicare fund about to go bust in the years ahead, the VA may be the only care available for those not lucky enough to have been in careers that paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary. I could see a future that has only CEOs and Vets as getting any care at all. Just to get VA benefits now takes over a year due to the Iraq war backlog. One other reason to go to the A is that way, there is an easy record of problems. On discharge from the military, a list is made of all conditions. Many get rated a zero because they are not bad problems at age 40-50 but by the time you hit 60, that old trick knee gets to be bothersome or that shrapnel gets infected for no reason. It is a nightmare to get the paperwork to get your disability raised for a problem that gets worse. If your care is from the VA, they have the records right there and know how to process it. Prove your pain was bad enough to warrant a 10% disability raise? Np problem, check the VA pharmacy records, I was taking 10 Vicodin a day just to get by. End of argument! We risked our necks for VA promises and we are trying to cling onto it. My last re-enlistment paperwork had a clause that all prior promises were null and void in it. If they want to break promises, then they need to double my pay... and my retirement (which they also now recalculated to cut benefits). In the last 15 years, mostly under Clinton, they dropped family dental, pushed previously free on base medical care downtown with copays and caps, raised prices to above downtown levels for food at the commissary (which also is usually spoiled before you get it home, [we think they dumpster dive it from WMT throw aways]), they raised prices for MWR to the point you can get better deals online with the places you want to go, the BX/PX doesn't carry anything you really need, and if they do have it, it is cheaper at TGT or WMT. Housing is now leased and even harder to get into with an announced plan to push everyone downtown in the future and slowly eliminate it altogether. I was always pro-military but I now tell everyone, keep your kids away at all costs. It is a bum deal and is only getting worse by the day. Anyway, I can't write any more since I have to go downtown to the Rite-aid to get my prescription that I cant get on base anymore, then go to Costco to get some supplies and groceries since the commissary is closed and the food is poor quality anyway, then I am off to the liquor store since we don't have class VI stores anymore. And, no they don't reimburse us for the drive 20 miles just to get out the gate nor the other 20 miles to get anywhere that has stores, reimburse for the taxes and then the 40 miles back. And oh, by the way, we don't get the tax dropped from our gas prices anymore either, so the gas is cheaper at the corner station downtown than it is on base. By God they better give me my VA benefits or there is going to be a bunch of Dallas tower type incidents in the future! There is getting to be more and more pissed of GIs out there getting tired of broken promises! Sorry for the rant but as you can see, it is a very sore point with us. Good Luck, Lee