Well we all know about Medicare, but most people probably have never heard of Tricare. Tricare is the health care provider for our nation’s military. It’s free for active duty Soldiers and their families. While it covers retirees, it’s not free and until recently it wasn’t available to reservists. Why did the military open up Tricare to reservists? You would think it’s because the deployment rate of the reserves, but that’s not it. It turns out it was cheaper for the military to fund a program for reservists where they pay for coverage then when they come on active duty for their deployment, to fix all their problems.
I’ve been activated for deployment twice and I know all about this. An entire unit shows up to this thing called SRP, (an SRP is basically a process of making sure all your paperwork, medical issues and equipment is ready for deployment). The biggest deal with these things are the medical review. When my unit was deployed, half of the people inside the unit had teeth pulled. That’s right! Teeth pulled! It’s cheaper for the government to just pull your teeth out than fix them.
Well about two or three years ago, the military opened up Tricare to reservists, and about one year ago they opened up a dental plan. The problem was they were losing to many people through the SRP process (if your too broken to deploy, they won’t send you) and it was costing the government a lot of money to fix people’s issues.
If you think government run health care is great. Let me tell you about my experience.
Sure, while your on active duty it’s totally free! You just show up and they take care of your problems.
However, it’s been my experience that they make it very unpleasant to go. First off, ever wake up in the morning and feel like total crap? Of course everyone does. That’s when you call up work and call in dead. Sometimes the best remedy is just rest. Why go to a doctor if you know you just need some good old Zs?
Not in the military! If you wake up and you just need some rest. SICK CALL! See the military (and government for that matter) has a process for everything. If your sick, go to sick call. Their view on it is; your not a doctor, so you can’t make a judgment like that on your own. Want to go to sick call? The night before you have to see your supervisor and fill out a sick call form. You have to show up for the morning formation; Usually around 4:30 or 5am (forget about that recommended sleep I was talking about earlier). Then, you can be taken to the hospital or local clinic. Since sick call is at a specific time, the waiting line is incredibly long. I mean who thought sending everyone to the hospital at the same time was a brilliant idea? So after you’ve waited around for a couple hours you finally get to see a medic.
Now be careful; I love medics, but those guys will try and convince you that you need an IV! You go in for a headache and their like, ‘what you need is some H20 in your veins!’ Why do they want to stick you? Well they need to do so many ’sticks’ a year to stay certified. So they are always pushing for IVs. My recommendation is if you came in with a hangover… take the IV, it’s WONDERFUL!
Now sick call is for minor things, if your issue turns out to be something bigger. They will then schedule you to see a specialist.
Another problem is sometimes your chain of command will give you a hard time about seeing a doctor. Just like a normal business, nobody likes to lose their employee for a day or two.
I’ve also heard people complain that health care insurance companies force people to go to only doctors inside of their plan. That you have to call ahead to, ‘OK’ seeing a doctor. Guess what! Tricare does the same thing. In my opinion they are even worse. I had to get a physical and was told my closest choice was an hour and a half away. Recently for a flight physical I had to get my eyes checked. Even though their are plenty of doctors that do Eye Refractions, if I wanted the government to pay for it I had to go to the closest government medical facility. It just so happens that it was about three hours away. Efficiency, nope.
I’ve heard congress talking about preexisting conditions a lot recently. Which kind of makes me laugh because of the enlistment process. Everyone knows recruiters will tell you anything to get you into the military. However, did you know that their are people whose job revolves around making sure you can’t make it into the military? When potential recruits make the decision to join the military they take them to a place called MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station). Now it’s the recruiters job to make sure you get into the military, and it’s MEPS job to make sure you don’t. WAH!? Yes! The medical department at MEPS is tasked with weeding out people who are trying to enter with preexisting conditions. Most people think they are just trying to see if you meet the standard of what is expected of a service member. It’s just not true. You see many people try to enter the military to get free health care. They find out something is wrong with them that will costs MEGABUCKS, and they figure my only choice is the military. Well, the truth is the government doesn’t want to fix broken people. They, just like a corporation have to worry about costs. Nobody wants to take on someone who already has problems. So, if your planning on joining let me tell you, ‘those doctors at MEPS aren’t your friend!’
Don’t get me wrong. It’s nice having free health care while on active duty. Except, it’s not really free. My taxes and your taxes are paying for it. The military is full of great doctors who really care about helping troops. My opinion is that health care is too big of an issue to pass it through quickly and it’s just sounds too complicated as some of the plans are 1,000 pages long. It sounds like a lot of loop holes to me.
Free Market Military supports the effort to change the law so that health care can be bought across state lines. If the president wants competition, start with allowing companies to go to any state! That’s a no brain`er. I think they should pass a bill now for tort reform and health care across state lines. Once that’s done, hey, let’s see if we still even need the public plan. Maybe, it will fix itself… with the FREE MARKET!
In my heart I’d really like to support single-payer solution. Our taxes pay for police, fire departments, mail; why not my doctor? If I thought it would work, I would support it. Frankly, I think the only thing the government would do is mess it up. I’ve always thought of the government as this person who is suppose to protect you and enforce standards. But, if the government becomes your provider… who’s going to protect you from the government?
