All I Want For Christmas Is Veterans Getting What They Paid For

Veterans Paid The Price For Care Not Abandonment
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 23, 2016

Civilians enjoy freedoms provided by what Veterans paid for. Yet some want to treat veterans like civilians and dump them into the same healthcare system civilians and politicians complain about?

Did you know only about 20% of our veterans go to the VA for all their healthcare needs? Why? For starters they either have to have a service connected disability rating or they cannot afford private healthcare.

Eligibility Service in the Uniformed Services on active duty, OR Active duty for training, OR Inactive duty training, AND You were discharged under other than dishonorable conditions, AND You are at least 10% disabled by an injury or disease that was incurred in or aggravated during active duty or active duty for training, or inactive duty training Note: If you were on inactive duty for training, the disability must have resulted from injury, heart attack, or stroke.

In other words, honorable service caused the disability or injury. So no, not all veterans get VA care. The only other option is if a veteran proves they cannot afford healthcare. That part is always subject to what Congress decides to do.

That is the most disgusting thing in all of this. We cannot even take care of the smallest group of veterans in this entire country and Congress has gotten a free pass to neglect their duty since 1946! Congress is responsible for all of this and they have been since the First House Veterans Affairs Committee took their seats and have been sitting down on the job ever since, blaming Presidents and VA heads for what they failed to do. 

It happened during Republican and Democrat administrations. It is a less than honorable way to treat them. Politicians just hoped we wouldn't notice. People pushing to privatize veterans care hoped we wouldn't notice and would just settle for them washing their hands after they sold out our veterans. Pushing to send veterans into private healthcare providers is not only disgraceful, it is downright FUBAR.

I was reading about what is going on in Topeka with the loss of the loss of their psychiatrist. In the article I read this and it summed up why I do not play well with others.

Melissa Jarboe, founder of the Military Veteran Project, is a strong supporter of the choice program. She believes PTSD sufferers will be able to find quality psychiatric care outside the VA in Topeka.

There is a reason veterans do not want to go into private mental healthcare. Combat trauma is a lot different from any other type of PTSD and any "expert" being interviewed should know that. Private psychiatric providers to not understand combat but VA doctors do since they have the proper training, in other words, they are specialists.

Veterans are rightfully upset over this.

The change sent shockwaves of anxiety through area veterans communities, as PTSD sufferers feared the worst. One veteran of the Vietnam War said he and others reacted with stress and anger at the news.

In the 90's we were told that the VA was the best place for my husband after he had tried private mental healthcare. They were right back then and they are still right. 

Topeka VA will temporarily drop outpatient PTSD care
Topeka Capital Journal
Justin Wingerter
December 21, 2016

Life is better now, he says. But for how long? His Topeka VA psychiatrists have provided stability, a lifeline, since the 1990s. Wednesday morning, he was told to begin looking elsewhere, beyond the VA’s walls, for treatment.

Anxious and afraid, Bob Portenier doesn’t know what to do next. His post-traumatic stress disorder will flare up on Jan. 30, the anniversary of the Tet Offensive, as it always does.

But this time his psychiatrist — the one who has helped him and other veterans through many bad days and nights — won’t be around.

“It’s a bad situation,” Portenier said. “We’re getting kicked to the curb.”

After Monday, the Colmery-O’Neil VA Medical Center’s post-traumatic stress disorder team will temporarily be without a mental health care provider, said Joseph Burks, spokesman for the VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System, because the provider at the PTSD clinic has taken another position.

“In the meantime, our nursing staff in the clinic are working hard to determine if some of our veteran patients can be seen in primary care,” Burks said.

Those who cannot be treated in the primary care section of the hospital will be referred to the VA’s choice program.

Under the program, veterans can receive care from private providers rather than wait for VA care.

Portenier is a combat veteran, a Marine who served in Vietnam between 1967 and 1969. After that came the PTSD. Then came the alcohol, the drugs, the crime and the homelessness.
read more here

Anyone pushing for veterans to get private care has given up on even trying to make sure they receive proper care. The same care they paid for by putting their lives in danger. They should not be treated like civilians by civilians!