Military Health Care

[Mrs. westcoaststrokin]

Been doing a little research and was wondering what y'all thought of this idea. Most people think that tricare if free for military members and their dependents. Given it is a small fee for the premium all members pay a certain premium for their health care and the family.

Vets Eyed For Health Cost Cuts


This is what the military status was in August 2007...

Active Duty Military Personnel, 1940–2007 — Infoplease.com

More to come......

[Ryan Rønning]

I appreciate that it is free but it is such a hassle to use. Military medical doctors are not exactly the best there is either. I generally try to get a referral to be seen off post when ever possible. Does not happen much being active duty but I wont let them work on my wife. In theater I do not have much of a choice!

[Mrs. westcoaststrokin]

I agree that miltary medicine can be scary. No doubt. I have been lucky enough to have been assigned to a civilian doc that works in the Navy hospital here. However with that said it has bee frustrating in the past def. When I was preg with our first daughter, I had gone to a doc on the outside. Only to find out that Tri-Care would not approve to pay for the doc since I did not go through them first even though they are not primary since I had insurance through work......

[Ryan Rønning]

Originally Posted by Mrs. westcoaststrokin

I agree that miltary medicine can be scary. No doubt. I have been lucky enough to have been assigned to a civilian doc that works in the Navy hospital here. However with that said it has bee frustrating in the past def. When I was preg with our first daughter, I had gone to a doc on the outside. Only to find out that Tri-Care would not approve to pay for the doc since I did not go through them first even though they are not primary since I had insurance through work......

That is what I mean by Tricare being a pain in the butt. There are to many things to be done before it is useful. My wife and I have been here at FT Sill for a month now and my wife needs an appointment made at the on post care giver so that she can get a referral to an off post provider for her thumb. Well it should be simple to do but after a month they still have not put my wife in the system yet. This is pathetic when you think about how few people are even at FT Sill and the system goes by base/region!

[Firemanbill]

I think it has it's problems just like anything but all in all it works well. I've had better care by military Docs than civilian and vice versa.

I have to go to the Navy Hospital here for my arthritis. My Rheumatology Doc there (Active duty Navy) is probably the most thorough, caring, Doc I have ever met besides my Brother, but he is all the way in Kansas so it's hard to get to see him. All in all I have had very positive experiences with the Military medical system.

What tics me off is that when I enlisted in the Air Force in 1980 one of the promises we got was that is we stayed to retirement we would have free health care for life. Over the years more and more of that has evaporated. I have to pay premiums for Tricare now that I am retired. I know it is extremely cheap in comparison to civilian plans but it ought to not cost me anything, yet it does.

As every year passes we lose more and more of our promised benefits.. and there is not a damn thing we can do about it except complain.

[Ryan Rønning]

There are plenty of good ones out there.

But I had a Captain the other day basically acted towards me like I was standing between him and cashing a million dollar check. This guy didnt care and couldn't get out of there fast enough. I ended up walking out on him is how bad it was!

[Firemanbill]

I had that happen more than once at Civilian Docs too.

While I was stationed in Tennessee on recruiting duty I actually had one roll her eyes at me when I asked her a question. I stopped mid sentence and said, "Am I bothering you" she actually had the nerve to say she had somewhere she needed to be and was in a real hurry. I walked right out of the place and refused to pay the bill. Told Champus about it and they refused to pay as well, then the Doctors office billed me the whole thing and sent it to a collection agency to get payment.

I never did pay them and it sat on my credit report for the longest time and probably cost me a bundle in the long run but there was no way they were getting a dime of my money.

I was so happy to finally get back to a base where there were Military Docs.

[westcoaststrokin]

I have a good surgeon I hope that is getting ready to cut on my neck but I have been waiting for over two weeks to get care. Does someone want to explain to me how socialized medicine is the answer.

[Ryan Rønning]

Originally Posted by Firemanbill

I had that happen more than once at Civilian Docs too.

While I was stationed in Tennessee on recruiting duty I actually had one roll her eyes at me when I asked her a question. I stopped mid sentence and said, "Am I bothering you" she actually had the nerve to say she had somewhere she needed to be and was in a real hurry. I walked right out of the place and refused to pay the bill. Told Champus about it and they refused to pay as well, then the Doctors office billed me the whole thing and sent it to a collection agency to get payment.

I never did pay them and it sat on my credit report for the longest time and probably cost me a bundle in the long run but there was no way they were getting a dime of my money.

I was so happy to finally get back to a base where there were Military Docs.

Civ doctors sometimes think a lil highly of them selves!

[Mrs. westcoaststrokin]

Originally Posted by Firemanbill

I think it has it's problems just like anything but all in all it works well. I've had better care by military Docs than civilian and vice versa.

I have to go to the Navy Hospital here for my arthritis. My Rheumatology Doc there (Active duty Navy) is probably the most thorough, caring, Doc I have ever met besides my Brother, but he is all the way in Kansas so it's hard to get to see him. All in all I have had very positive experiences with the Military medical system.

What tics me off is that when I enlisted in the Air Force in 1980 one of the promises we got was that is we stayed to retirement we would have free health care for life. Over the years more and more of that has evaporated. I have to pay premiums for Tricare now that I am retired. I know it is extremely cheap in comparison to civilian plans but it ought to not cost me anything, yet it does.

As every year passes we lose more and more of our promised benefits.. and there is not a damn thing we can do about it except complain.

My point exactly. I did review Josh's LES and we don't pay a premium for the TriCare part of it but we do for dental. that is 60.00 per month. However I was under the assumption it was at 15.00 per month for Tricare. With that said, over 1,000,000 enlisted members paying 15.00 per month might actually help the system.

As far as members coming in and being told that you would have free med care for life after retirement, that should be upheld IMO. That to me is BS and you should be taken care of for serving the country.