The Government Health Care Option

Posted by Independentone October 6, 2009 at 4:42 p.m.

Today my government provided health care reared up and bit me where it hurts – my wallet! Now to be factual all the health care my wife and I receive is provided by governments. We both have Medicare. I have Tricare for Life. She has a supplement through her public school retirement program. These are all government programs but they are all administered by publicly held health insurance corporations and use a set of doctors of my choice available to the general public. Only a small veneer is actually employed by any government and it sets the policy as to what is covered and what is not through large books distributed to the client- note the insurance companies do not determine what is covered.

The system that bit me is a true government administered, operated and executed system – everyone is a government employee. That system is the VA. Last week I received a bill for a medication I have been taking for a service/combat connected disability. Normally medications for service connected disabilities are free to the recipient as the acknowledgement of a grateful nation for the consequence of services delivered. I have been receiving that medication for over a year from the VA. Somebody made a determination within the last month that the medication was no longer required for my service connected disability. Unfortunately nobody told me. I have no desire to take a medication I do not need. I have no desire to use VA resources for something not required.

That said, you would think the great government operated system would communicate better with their patients. What is even more galling is that nobody at the VA seems to be responsible for telling me about the change and nobody can reverse the erroneous charge for a medication now determined to not be required. To add insult to injury, they have now sent me a second ninety day supply that I did not ask to receive and do not want. Apparently, they also want me to pay for that.

Why is this important? Because this is why many of us fear a government operated and manned health care system. When my government paid insurance programs run amuck I can and have appealed and there are people with the authority to address the appeal and redress the problem. Apparently this is not the case in the VA. I have been told essentially to “man-up” and pay the bill. We are not talking a lot of money in this case but I can see the day when my Democratic party driven single payer Canadian like system sends me a bill after the fact for a medical procedure costing a great deal and I am told to “man–up” and pay it because it was determined to be uncovered after the fact!

Is this what many of you in the LJW blog world want! Just maybe some of us with long experience have reasons other than being part of the great ugly race bating right wing conspiracy to fear too much government involvement. Government manned systems are regrettably known for making unilateral decisions, not communicating them and then falling back on sovereign immunity to avoid responsibility.

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RogueThrill (anonymous) says…

If it sucks so much pony up the cash and pay for your own.
October 6, 2009 at 5:04 p.m.
denak (anonymous) says…

".....and I am told to “man–up” and pay it because it was determined to be uncovered after the fact!....

George, this happens now under the current system.
October 6, 2009 at 5:23 p.m.
RogueThrill (anonymous) says…

The government teet I am on is sooooooo bad I don't want to share this teet with anyone!

Get off my teet you runt!

Buy some private insurance and come back and tell us how you feel about it.
October 6, 2009 at 5:25 p.m.
IndependentOne (anonymous) says…

RogueThrill (Anonymous) says…

I do to the tune of about $11,000 a year. Even after being promised "free: health care for military service
October 6, 2009 at 7:03 p.m.
IndependentOne (anonymous) says…

porch_person (Anonymous) says…

Hi,

The problem is I am being charged for something that was free and the change to a chage was never communicated. Now they want money even though the mistake was there's. I can not fight them because they are the "government".
October 6, 2009 at 7:05 p.m.
IndependentOne (anonymous) says…

denak (Anonymous) says…

May be. Of course if you do not read the large books they send you then you don't know you are uncovered. Whose fault is that?

This is after the fact. It was covered and then not covered and nobody communicated the change. This is the group that many of you want to move to in order to avoid the insurance companies. I am batting about 90% fighting with them. You cannot fight with the government!
October 6, 2009 at 7:09 p.m.
IndependentOne (anonymous) says…

General Comment:

Some of you need to do your homework. Medicare, TFL and other supplements are not free even thought they are government. You pay for them. They are comparable in price to over the counter insurance.

TFL is supposed to be free as a condition of employment. But as is the case in so many things the government does it changes the rules after the game is played.
October 6, 2009 at 7:13 p.m.
hereinmyhead (anonymous) says…

I'm all for a public option. However, none of the remarks against George's protest over being charged for the meds even address 2 important principles for what's happened in HIS situation. There is NO comparison between systems or between George and someone who's best argument for the public option is to make a ridiculous and disrespectful 'get off the govt's teat' insult, then jump up and down hollering "Where's mine?".

George's combat veteran's status exempts him from paying for medicine. If the VA sent him something he is no longer in need of (twice) - why should he pay for their mistake? (remember people - 1-veteran status is not the same as civilian, and 2-the VA *IS* the 'current system' for veterans. To make that comparison valid, an example of whom the 'current system' exempts from the cost of prescriptions needs to be shown, and there aren't any. Argument over. It's the VA who should suck that one up and look to solving their problems from within, not making veterans pay for them.

Aside from that, whatever the charge for that 90-day supply, *hopefully* it's understood that "price" for it is a far cry from what it actually "costs", and that price is probably a lot less for the VA then it is one of us at "Public Pharmacy".

Also, nobody here knows exactly WHAT this particular drug even was. Many drugs that are taken theraputically to treat specific conditions are prescribed in order to correct or balance something that isn't being done naturally in the body. Once a person's theraputic dosage is reached, the body relies on constant levels of the drug to maintain proper function. When a medication is to be discontnued, this will usually necessitate a gradual tapering down before stopping entirely, so not to shock the system and cause a condition to worsen. Often when one drug is stopped another is started to replace it. George was not involved in the decision to stop his medication or even told why it was being stopped. That makes it sound like he probably wasn't even informed of any possible instructions on how to stop taking the medicine (which should be required for any prescription drug that's being taken for theraputic reasons, where it becomes a part of his daily routine. Not being given any information in that regard could have dangerous effects, yet you all believe he should just suck it up and pay for this substandard care? Thankfully, it sounds as though medication tapering was not a necessity here, but he, as the patient was not involved in any part of the decision making, nor given any information as to the reasoning behind it until a monetary matter came into play at the fault of his provider.

The VA example George is giving simply tells me that if and when a public option becomes available, the VA should NOT be the model by which it's designed, but rather a primary beneficiary of any improvements that might be made.
October 6, 2009 at 8:37 p.m.
tbaker (anonymous) says…

The politicians don't want to reform health care. If they did, they would have passed a bill that changes all manner of things that have been broken with our system for a very long time, and these changes I speak of don't cost the US tax payer a dime. So why hasn't it been done? Why are we fixated on another massive entitlement program our country can't afford instead of common sense changes that are free?

Because spending tax money (we don't have) doesn't harm the special interests who would be if the "free" reforms were passed. Said special interests pay for the campaigns. Politicians are more concerned with re-election than they are with us.

The public option isn't going to pass the senate anyway. A face-saving version of health care reform will be passed, and we'll add a few more billion to the skyrocketing mountain of debt, but the fundamental problems that cause high health care costs and limited access will remain because $5 million-dollar (average cost) senate campaigns do not pay for themselves.

Vote against every incumbent.
October 6, 2009 at 8:59 p.m.
readit (anonymous) says…

Unfortunately, I can't get through most of your blogs because of your poor punctuation. Do us all a favor and spend a little time with Strunk & White's book, The Elements of Style. You will get your points across in a better fashion.
October 6, 2009 at 10:14 p.m.
IndependentOne (anonymous) says…

readit (Anonymous) says…

Good point! Perhaps you might have some further thoughts. To some of us Blogs are kind of like texting where you take shortcuts. I frequently avoid verbs and nouns to save length when I think something is obvious. I guess it is not always so. Whoops that eneded the wrong way.

hereinmyhead (Anonymous) says…

Thank you for your comments.

General Comment:
The key point remains despite all the comments to "man-up". Government manned systems are regrettably known for making unilateral decisions, not communicating them and then falling back on sovereign immunity to avoid responsibility. I provided an example. I am sure there are others. This is not a failure to provide care. The VA worker bees are a talented lot. This is a management problem where mid-level government fuctionaries create an inflexible atmosphere of fear leading to stupid outcomes. Even insurance companies do better-maybe they have better management?

Be careful what you wish for!!!
October 7, 2009 at 9:57 a.m.
annemccracken (anonymous) says…

I am confused, you get free government health care yet you pay for it?

But still, you are paying for one prescription, how many did you get for free?

I cant get insurance. I had cancer when I still insured as an Army dependent. I turned 23 and have been without coverage ever since. I am not in the service but I serve my country everyday, I volunteer, I work, I try to make a positive impact in my community. What about people like me?
October 8, 2009 at 2:59 p.m.
IndependentOne (anonymous) says…

annemccracken (Anonymous) says…

You know that you do not need to have a single payer government system to provide care to all. The current bills use existing vehicles primarily to do so.

The only free health care I get is that for a military service/combat related matter. Do you really believe that whatever you do is equivalent to being shot at because your fellow citizens put you there?

You are missing the issue. It is not health care it is arbitrary government decisions.

For example, you end up with Medicaid coverage from the bills now under consideration. You have a medical condition resulting from an accident. The government denies you care because it is too expensive and demands you get the money from the other party in the accident. They have no money. Your are SOL. You cannot fight the government decision however arbitrary.

You can sue health insurance providers and you can (and people do) win. Sometimes they make big bucks.

I have been told that buried in the bills pending is language that would eliminate that option. If that were true, that would not be good.

Be careful-not all is as it seems. Some of the supposed good guys are really bad guys in disguise.
October 8, 2009 at 6:31 p.m.