Posted: Oct 15, 07
10:52am
Today I have my bi-annual appointment with the VA. I'm going to answer questions such as "How's it going?", "How are you feeling?", and "How's life treating you these days?". It may be an actual doctor (M.D. type), asking the questions. He'll click away on a keyboard, entering God knows what into a computer generated form displayed on a screen angled slightly away, (so that I can't see what he's saying about me.)
It doesn't really matter what I tell him, because they aren't going to do anything. I suppose if I talked about something really disturbing, or fell onto the floor clutching my chest and writhing in agony, he might see to that I received stabilizing treatment or tranquilizers. (This is conjecture, I don't have any disturbing thoughts or critical emergencies. I'm just not sure how serious a problem must be to warrant VA assistance.) There is anecdotal evidence that disturbing thoughts and behavior fall on deaf ears at the VA.
I have pretty good insurance, it's called Tricare Prime (for military retirees) and it's administered by Humana. If I get sick or injured, they are there, with what I percieve to be pretty good benefits, comparable to anything civilians have. I don't think I should have to pay for a visit, or 20% of a bill, for a service connected injury. At least that's the way it's always been.
With all of the new injuries coming home from overseas, the VA is stretched real thin, and politicians are playing politics with the funding. Every time I hear about some dweeb wanting to tie VA funding with the latest "bring our troops home" effort, it sickens me. Their misguided efforts to do something about GW Bush (that idiot U.S. President) affects every veteran that is receiving compensation from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Panama, and Gulf War I, Iraq, and Afghanistan. They're just the ones injured in the publicly known conflicts.
I'd like to take Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and all of their lunatic political opponents and drop them in the middle of the Shahi-Kot valley with a broken radio and some high visibility signal panels. Maybe I'd give them a signal mirror too, to make sure the locals could find them. I'd give them a week or two then launch a rescue mission to see what scraps we could find, fly the odd survivor home and drop them off at a VA outpatient clinic in Mississippi.
Ahhhhhh yesss. That feels good. I'm ready for my appointment. Toodles!
