Allan/others - Question Re Healthcare Reform

[tssnave]

Allan (I tried to send you a PM but yours is turned off - please reply in the open forum - thanks),

I read your closed for comment thread on the House healthcare reform and how veterans would be able to choose the new plan:

http://www.hadit.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=32467

However, an earlier post on VAWatchdog.org states otherwise:

http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfnov09/nf110909-1.htm

Could you please tell me how I could easily find out what information is right? I am not a very savvy computer researcher which is why I have to depend on trusted sites like VAwatchdog.org and hadit. When my two vet sites are in contridiction with one another, I get confused and am not sure which one is correct or if one supercedes the other and worse, I am uncertain how to find out the answer to the contridiction.

Please help.

Thanks,

TS Snave

Edited November 19, 2009 by tssnave

[Pete53]

No one really knows what the new health care will mean to Veterans.

[john999]

Pete

That's right, we don't know. I have insurance from my former employer that serves both me and my wife. Are my rates going to continue to soar? She is too young for medicare, so I keep the private insurance because it pays for all copays and deductibles. At some point they are saying that if your private medical insurance policy is worth over 20,000 bucks you will get taxed on it. Mine is not gold plated but it is worth about $1200 a month. I watched Front Line a few weeks ago and a guy went to five major industrial nations to compare with US. All had better heath care system. Some had private insurance and some had combinations of medicare-like system, private and VA style system. The market system is great for those who have plenty of money. For the poor it sucks. All the costs of medical care are cheaper in other nations. We pay more for less. The health care system here is like a vampire that sucks people dry and then spits them out when the money is gone. I rushed my wife to the hospital last year, and the first question they asked me was what kind of insurance I had. Since I have good insurance she got the CT scan and immediate and great care. $36,000 for five days in the hospital. If she did not have insurance I believe they would have turned her away because she was not bleeding to death. She would have died if she did not get care but it would have taken a few weeks.

[tssnave]

I am not trying to open a debate on healthcare reform - I am trying to get a very specific question answered as to whether or not the house bill did or did not allow for veterans to keep their VA medical and still be able to choose to buy the other plans.

Please confine answers to this single question. I need help finding and understanding the facts and am not seeking opinions.

Allan's hadit thread states veterans would be able to choose the new plan in the House bill:

http://www.hadit.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=32467

However, a recent post on VAWatchdog.org states the House bill failed to allow veterans the same freedom of choice in healthcare as everyone else:

http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfnov09/nf110909-1.htm

Could you please tell me how I could easily find out what information is right? I am not a very savvy computer researcher which is why I have to depend on trusted sites like VAwatchdog.org and hadit. When my two vet sites are in contridiction with one another, I get confused and am not sure which one is correct or if one supercedes the other and worse, I am uncertain how to find out the answer to the contridiction.

Please help with the facts only.

Thanks,

TS Snave

[12R3G]

Snave

1. Call your representative's office

2. Read the bill (go to www.house.gov)

I think there is finally a consolidated house resolution and a companion senate bill.

While either might be interesting to read, one guarantee and that what ultimately passes and is sent to the President, will not be 100% of what is in either bill right now. if nothing else, the house and senate versions will have to be reconciled in a joint conference committee and returned to each chamber for a final vote.

Generally, everything I have read / heard is the VHA health enrollment would be "creditable coverage"; meaning you would not be required to either purchase a private (or public) policy, nor would you face a penalty for not purchasing private/public coverage.

I think what you are asking is "can you purchase a public plan in lieu of VHA healthcare?". Probably, be we won't know what is really possible until the house and senate vote on whatever comes out of the house/senate conference committee. Until then, everything is just somebody's idea of a good (or bad) idea.

[tssnave]

12R,

I understand. I just had a similar conversation with my ever calm spouse. I tried reading the bill and my pc froze up. Apparently I was trying to look at it when CNN was talking about it and the site got bogged down.

In addition to counting VA and TRICARE as credible coverage it is my hope and prayer that they also allow those of us with VA or TRICARE coverage to still be able to purchase other healthcare. Many of us do NOT want to use VA for all of our healthcare for one reason or the other (too far away, changing faces of doctors making it hard to establish a true relationship, concerns over quality of care, etc).

I just hope the final bill does not require those eligible for VA or TRICARE to ONLY use those and make it so we aren't eligible for other healthcare. I would have to see veterans enjoy less freedom of choice than other Americans.

Thanks,

TS

[Vync]

Reading that bill is a treatment for insomnia