Widow stuck with medical bills after VA wait time

This is a heartbreaking story but not for what you may think. In a perfect country, the one more of citizens envision when they think about our veterans, no veteran would ever have to fight for any care in return for their service. This is far from a perfect country and there are rules in place. Rules to stop all veterans from getting free healthcare without strings attached.

Getting out of the military? Ok, then you have free VA healthcare for 5 years even if you do not file a claim for disability. File a claim for compensation and then you get in line for your claim to be read, reviewed and then sent to another pile. If you do not agree with the decision, you get into another pile while your appeal is reviewed. Until your decision rating is made, you are responsible for what care the VA gives you unless you meet the income threshold for free care.

If you are getting out of the military, the VA covers your healthcare for 5 years but not your family. If you have a disability rating of 100% then your family can be covered under CHAMPVA.

This story is about a couple dealing with this. The veteran had cancer but was not seen as fast as he should have been and now the wife is dealing with losing her husband as well as a huge medical bill from a civilian hospital.

"Toward the end of Gene's life, he ended up in the emergency room in Kingman, and that care left Delores with nearly $200,000 in medical bills the VA wouldn't pay."

The kicker to all of this is that a small percentage of veterans actually use the VA. There are about 22 million veterans bu the VA pays compensation to less than 5 million. Yep, we can't even take care of the veterans seeking care from the government and far too many veterans won't ask for anything until they have tried everything else. This usually leaves them in a health crisis expecting to be taken care of only to discover they have arrived at the end of the line.

Did Veterans Affairs fail Gene Broadwell?
KNTV News
By Darcy Spears
CREATED Jul 11, 2014

Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) -- Would a veteran still be alive today if the VA saw him sooner or took care of him better? His widow says yes.

Cancer is often a death sentence. But it doesn't have to be, if you catch it early enough. That's a "what-if" scenario Delores Broadwell can't shake.

"They could have found it maybe earlier and did the chemo and the radiation. He'd still be sitting here talking to us."

We can still hear Gene Broadwell talk, thanks to audio tapes Delores made, with the doctors' permission, at Gene's visits to the VA, capturing his frustration.
read more here

You can find a lot more answers from the VA under Frequently Asked Questions