If you fight in combat for the US military, you should - at the least - receive free health care for the rest of your life.

DaShredda: I busted my ass my entire life trying hard in school, reading, studying, etc etc etc.

I didn't party hard, I didn't fark around, and I spent my youth trying to work towards greatness.

The government gives some hick a gun, tells him to pull the trigger, and he's supposed to be taken care of for life?fark that shiat!

Soldiers are peons.

People who cure cancer are heroes.

Typical post n' run troll. You got a few nibbles, but nothing substantial. And another thing, I hope you didn't study hard in web design or art. Man, your site is terrible. Is that seriously the link you give to potential clients? Yikes!

SnakeLee: Weaver95: basemetal: Ennuipoet: I'm just saying, you know, history is pretty interesting.

yep

I hope you are both wrong.

You hope history is boring?

Good thing our President doesn't have disdain for those in the military.

LOL people talk about the US health care system as if it were the model of efficiency. LOL! ROFL! LMAO!!!!

TRUTH is that it is the only one of it's kind in the world and the worst in terms of cost per quality, quantity, and comprehension of treatment in the world. Yes, USA #1! In what? I haven't the foggiest, the more I read about other developed nations the more this one seems like a huge joke.

King Merkin: If you fight in combat for the US military, you should - at the least - receive free health care for the rest of your life.

What? Why? How about fighting fires? Being a cop? Chances are a cop or a fire fighter is going to have had a much more tangible impact on you or your community in your lifetime.

Nemo's Brother: SnakeLee: Weaver95: basemetal: Ennuipoet: I'm just saying, you know, history is pretty interesting.

yep

I hope you are both wrong.

You hope history is boring?

Good thing our President doesn't have disdain for those in the military.

This comment, if sarcastic, is about 8 years late.

BO didn't send people to fight a bullshiat war without proper armor.

Ringtailed79: WHEN YOU'RE >5018 YOU NEED TO PLAN FOR THE EVENT OF DEATH.

All I got from this article is there were a couple of really farking ignorant folks living together.

FTFY

In case someone hasn't pointed this out already, that's exactly the position all gay couples are in when a partner dies. It doesn't matter how long they have been together or what they have been through. If a partner dies with his or her name on any assets those assets can be seized and sold if the remaining names can't pony up half the cash.

The lady in the article is lucky she gets to be called the common law wife. Plenty of gay people have been screwed out of property they co own with their partners.

logruszed:
This comment, if sarcastic, is about 8 years late.

BO didn't send people to fight a bullshiat war without proper armor.

You go to the hospital with the insurance you have, not the insurance you want.

These people are responsible for understanding the law and making provisions for it all. If she has to pay half of what the properties are worth, she can just sell one and pay them with that. She will still have one left. We definitely need to provide better for our veterans, especially ones that were wounded, but that isn't what this story is really about, is it? It's more along the lines of, "Waaah we didn't understand the law."

famousp: Medical care is a service which must be paid for with money.

Money is an illusion, which means that how much things cost change with the way the sun looks today.

TheOtherGuy: Famousp:

You don't stiff your veterans for saving your freakin' ass and way of life.


FTFA:
In 1990, he was badly injured in a welding explosion in Bettendorf.

Apparently he was still attached to the 101st airborn arc welding brigade when he was injured?

"Everybody who gets Medicaid is told this is a government program for which we will be expecting repayment,"

Then it's NOT A FUC*ING GOVERNMENT PROGRAM, IS IT, POOKIE?

Where do you suppose they spend all that money that they get from ripping people off for sh*t that taxes are supposed to fund?

bunner: "Everybody who gets Medicaid is told this is a government program for which we will be expecting repayment,"

Then it's NOT A FUC*ING GOVERNMENT PROGRAM, IS IT, POOKIE?

How is it not? Sounds a lot like my student loans.

Ennuipoet: In Rome, during the late Republic, the Veterans would come home from the wars to find all they had was taken in taxes and sold to the rich. Their lands were tilled by slaves and they were left penniless and broken to fend for themselves as best they could. These men were promised land and rewards for their service and paid with poverty. Men trained by the State in the art and science of war are dangerous tools, without hope they may be wielded by dangerous men. The Republic fell in the small part to this kind of behavior when Caesar and subsequent Emperors provided for the welfare of the Veterans to curry support.

They gave them curry??? Crikey.

Hey, have you got this bass ackwards?

If the Emperors "provided for the welfare of the Veterans to curry support" then why did the republic fall?

And at the top of your paragraph you say NO support was given. Quite the opposite, in fact.

/coming in 170 comments late, apologies if I've missed anything regarding this

Hey subby - a "state-run veterans home" is not run by VA, but rather by the state.

Helps if you read/verify your tag against the article.

eggrolls: ????

My grandfather had emphysema and was on on a raft of medications (and permanently attached to an oxygen tank) for about 10 years. He eventually died from heart failure, almost right after they found was was suspected to be lung cancer. My point was, he was a sick, sick man. When he died, after several years of treatment in both the VA hospital system and at home under Medicaid & Medicare, my grandmother never saw a bill for anything.

So you are saying socialism works?

Leskay: If the Emperors "provided for the welfare of the Veterans to curry support" then why did the republic fall?

Well... the Republic became an Empire in part because the emperors bribed the soldiers to assist them in taking over the biatch.

Animatronik: Ennuipoet: In Rome, during the late Republic, the Veterans would come home from the wars to find all they had was taken in taxes and sold to the rich. Their lands were tilled by slaves and they were left penniless and broken to fend for themselves as best they could. These men were promised land and rewards for their service and paid with poverty. Men trained by the State in the art and science of war are dangerous tools, without hope they may be wielded by dangerous men. The Republic fell in the small part to this kind of behavior when Caesar and subsequent Emperors provided for the welfare of the Veterans to curry support.

I'm just saying, you know, history is pretty interesting.

I always heard it had something to do with Roman provincial officials offering food to starving Goths in exchange for using their daughters as concubines, and then forgetting to give them the food.

It was probably the same guys doing both.



Those poor starving Goths.

Medicaid is the nation's major public health insurance program for low-income Americans, financing health and long-term care services for over 52 million people, including children and many of the sickest and poorest in our nation. Since its enactment in 1965, Medicaid has improved access to health care for low-income individuals, financed innovations in health care delivery, and functioned as the nation's primary source of long-term care financing. The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was enacted in 1997 to provide coverage to uninsured low-income children who did not qualify for Medicaid. Today, the SCHIP program assists roughly 5 million low-income children.

Recent rapid growth in Medicaid spending at a time of great fiscal crisis at both state and federal levels has placed Medicaid squarely at the center of the current national health policy debate. Recent state-level efforts to constrain Medicaid spending have restricted provider payments, eligibility, and benefits, leading some to worry about comprising access to care. On the federal level, policymakers are now considering proposals to restructure Medicaid and dramatically cut spending.

Boy howdy.

Poppa Boner: Summoner101: It'd help first-term enlistments, but it'd definitely screw your retention rate. You'd get a bunch of douchnozzle's pulling one enlistment only to get out at their first opportunity because now they have healthcare for life. Not in my military, thank you very much. At least people joining for supplemented education will at least, y'know, use that benefit to benefit the country once they're out.

/not saying there aren't douchnozzle's already in the military

I agree completely that people will take advantage of the system but wasn't that the point of a free education too? Educating and healing people are good things for society. Especially when those are the people holding the guns for your liberties. I want soldiers to believe in something and fight for good. Not a bunch of cynical automatons.

/canuck
//post don't count

Which is precisely why when you are in the military, the majority of your healthcare, and the healthcare for your family, is mostly paid for. But there's a reason lifetime healthcare is reserved for retirees and wounded: they earned it in time or blood. Everyone else? They still have their years or body parts to go and do something else to earn their ride on the gravy train.

Besides, there are enough people in the military that are in for all the wrong reasons and literally don't five a shiat. There doesn't need to be more.

Anyway, lack of healthcare for life isn't what I generally see making soldiers "cynical automatons." I'd explain, but my choice of words would be anything but tactful.

famousp: Medical care is a service which must be paid for with money.

For some reason, when someone receives a large hospital bill for the huge number of complicated procedures performed on their bodies, they throw a fit.

You don't stiff your plumber for fixing your pipes.

You don't stiff your mechanic for fixing your car.

Why stiff your doctor for fixing your body?

Running water is a luxury; a car is a luxury; health is not a luxury.
Your analogy fails.

Terrydatroll: DaShredda:


Soldiers are peons.

People who cure cancer are heroes.

Soldiers win wars. I have yet to see a cure for cancer. Soldiers 1, Cancer curers 0.

Wars are never won, they just end.

If we don't give up this primitive concept of worshiping the monkey holding the biggest rock we're doomed.

olddinosaur: If the guy didn't have his stuff in order, it was all his own fault.

That's america for ya.... make everything a complicated process to keep your stuff away from a group of thieves with a monopoly on the legal use of violence.

How about people just make their own deals with health care providers instead?

King Merkin: If you fight in combat for the US military, you should - at the least - receive free health care for the rest of your life.

Why?

That just creates a war machine where it is more profitable to kill than to do something useful.

I'm surprised the neocons are still to this day against the idea of universal coverage. Pulling out the "wait til the government manages it if you don't like it now" angle rings hollow to the guy who has no coverage whatsoever (and there are, what, like 40+ million of us in this boat?). Yeah, thanks for your concern bub, I'll take my chances okay?

My constitution tells me I am endowed by certain INALIENABLE rights, the first of which it mentions is LIFE. I want my taxes to pay for its upkeep before allocating funds to unnecessary wars and programs that don't benefit me directly. A health care system that pays cradle to grave is a benefit I now regard as an entitlement paid for out of every dime I pay in taxes.

Canadians and EU citizens laugh at our archaic system. Hopefully we'll get to that stage before too long.

jst3p: eggrolls: ????

My grandfather had emphysema and was on on a raft of medications (and permanently attached to an oxygen tank) for about 10 years. He eventually died from heart failure, almost right after they found was was suspected to be lung cancer. My point was, he was a sick, sick man. When he died, after several years of treatment in both the VA hospital system and at home under Medicaid & Medicare, my grandmother never saw a bill for anything.

So you are saying socialism works?

Not with the prior statement, but based on an experience in an emergency room in Crawley, West Sussex England many years ago, I would.

King Merkin: If you fight in combat for the US military, you should - at the least - receive free health care for the rest of your life.

I'm not disagreeing, but that would go a long way to (further) bankrupting this country. Can you imagine the added costs? Literally hundreds of thousands of young men and women are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. Paying for all of their health care for the next 50 years of their lives would cost untold hundreds of billions, if not trillions of dollars. Factor in the First Gulf Conflict, Panama, Grenada, Vietnam and Korea (not to mention other smaller incidents) and we are talking tens of millions of people. It would be unsustainable.

Can'tLetYouDoThatStarFox: nealpolitan: Soldiers are treated as good as possible in a logical society because nothing can fark up your life plan like losing a war. And by war, I mean real war, the kind where if you lose, a fuzzy little foreigner is going to rampage through all your shiat and rape your womenfolk.

Nobody is threatening us with invasion, nor has anybody ever in our entire history as a nation, with the possible exception of the War of 1812.

This is admittedly something we don't have to worry about at this time, but you never know.

Yes I do. It's called nuclear deterrence.

The world has changed allot in the last 50 years, what will it look like 50 years from now?

It really hasn't changed THAT much since 1959. They had planes, cars, televisions, radios, tanks, atomic bombs, rockets, and even computers. We don't need a large standing force just waiting indefinitely and wasting obscene amounts of resources, not to mention destroying the environment in the process. If a real threat to our nation looms 50 or 100 years from now, we can rise to meet it then. That would be the rational thing to do.

Listen brainiac, I wasn't looking to argue whether we need the military we have now or not. I was just saying that it's not a good idea to shiat on your soldiers and/or veterans.

In the 6 or 7 thousand years or so of recorded human history, mistreating or neglecting your armed forces has never gone over very well.

Retort: chu2dogg: Retort: TheOtherGuy: Famousp:

You don't stiff your veterans for saving your freakin' ass and way of life.

/FTFY

Incorrect. He fought in Vietnam.

yeah.. that whole communism thing was totally cool

I'm sorry, did the Vietnam war take place in America?

That war was something you should all be horribly ashamed of.

I am horribly ashamed of my balls.

Dude's major expenses came from an accident not on Uncle Sam's time. Dude didn't have insurance to cover that, and used (abused!) medicaid to finance that stuff. And on top of that, dude didn't have his papers in order for when he died.

Why are people outraged at this? His combat-related expenses WERE paid for by the VA. This $277k was for his brain surgery and resulting care from his welding accident.

Sure, it sucks that a combat veteran died in a bitter fashion, but it was his own fault. And he dragged his live-in-woman into the whole thing too.

Animatronik: Sum Dum Gai: That's what happens when you use Medicaid. The state that pays out Medicaid payments gets to bill your estate when you die. Actually, it's more than "gets to", the state is required by federal law to sue the estate to recover certain costs, including all nursing home care.

Yes, when you go into a nursing home whatever you have in the way of social security, etc. gets signed over to them.

This guy no doubt received way more in benefits than his money will ever cover, sounds like a pretty good deal to me. I'd sign up for it.

/The problem with America is we don't seem to understand what an entitlement is and what things really cost. taking too much fro granted...

Again, its the liters bringing common sense, that should be obvious since nobody pays for message board access anymore.

DerDuschbagen: My constitution tells me I am endowed by certain INALIENABLE rights, the first of which it mentions is LIFE.

I like your constitution. Perhaps you should suggest the government amend their constitution so it better conforms to yours.

King Merkin: If you fight in combat for the US military, you should - at the least - receive free health care for the rest of your life.

Like the empire cares about people. Use them up, throw them away. Stealing people's money (or printing it) to provide vets with health care is less money available for them to steal or wage more wars with.

SecretAgentWoman: He should have taken the time to ensure his girlfriend would be in the clear once he died. Sounds like they assumed since she was part owner his half would automatically go to her, unfortunately, that isn't true.

I do love how they made her his "common law wife" so they could go after her specifically.

I don't think that's a matter of going after her, but of protecting her.

Cheesus: I did not know this. I sincerely doubt my grandmother knows this. Well, so much for her house I guess. The hospital sends her bills all the time and she rips them up saying "Medicare is supposed to pay for it all". I'd kill for a $32 bill for a trip to the emergency room.

Medicare Medicaid

King Merkin: If you fight in combat for the US military, you should - at the least - receive free health care for the rest of your life.


I believe you get free medical care for life if you serve 20 years and retire in the military (don't quote me on it, but friends have mentioned it). If you serve one year and leave, you should not be entitled to free medical care for life. Every person in the country would sign up and drop at the first opportunity if that were the case, and then we'd have truly socialized medical care.

/ohwait

He was shot in Vietnam, but his debilitating accident was decades later.

poisonedpawn78: Anyone who thinks the system you have now for healthcare is better than the way most other socialized countries run theirs are complete fools.

Every story like this should reinforce why the system needs to change, but then again, nobody cares until it happens to them. So aslong as its not happening to you, good old capitalism belongs in healthcare right?

Here's the thing; I don't live in those other countries, I live in America. I know what a mess the U.S. government makes of health care for soldiers-see Walter Reed. I know what a mess the U.S. government makes of health care for veterans-see the VA. I know what a mess the U.S. government makes of health care for American Indians-see the Indian Health Service. I know how budget-busting the U.S. government's effort to care for the elderly is-see Medicare.

If you have some method by which we can put the Canadian or German or Japanese government in charge of an American national health care system, hey, I might care about how well it works in those countries. As it is, every single bit of the health care system the U.S. government touches is shiat, overpriced, or both. So why the hell would I trust the U.S. government to run the whole system?

"Japanese and European companies make good small cars" is not an argument for buying small cars from GM. And "Japanese and European governments run good national health systems" is not an argument for a health system run by the U.S. government.

Point 1: This is NOT the VA
Point 2: He was injured as a CIVILIAN
Point 3: He was awarded a settlement for that injury
Point 4: He was well aware of the need for repayment
Point 5: The state is NOT going after the full amount, just what is left in his estate
Point 6: The woman in this article isn't even his wife and, in no way, can be held liable for his expenses

Point 7: 90% of Farkers are either naive, can't read or can't comprehend simple English

Summoner101: I'd explain, but my choice of words would be anything but tactful.

I'd listen. eip

I'm a vet and I'm fighting the VA for my benefits. How do you suppose I pay for health care for my non-service connected injuries. I don't have money or a job. If someone could explain this to me, that would be super.

Moopy Mac: King Merkin: If you fight in combat for the US military, you should - at the least - receive free health care for the rest of your life.

I'm not disagreeing, but that would go a long way to (further) bankrupting this country. Can you imagine the added costs? Literally hundreds of thousands of young men and women are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. Paying for all of their health care for the next 50 years of their lives would cost untold hundreds of billions, if not trillions of dollars. Factor in the First Gulf Conflict, Panama, Grenada, Vietnam and Korea (not to mention other smaller incidents) and we are talking tens of millions of people. It would be unsustainable.

Yeah except a majority of people in this country think that not only can we (that's we as in the politicians, the taxpayers, the R's the D's - hell whatever grouping you want to use) anyway, not only can we do it for those hundreds of thousands but all 300+ million of us - everyone, you know, universal health coverage.

If a few hundred thousand, relatively healthy people, covered for the rest of their lives would be a nearly unbearable burden, someone please tell me how the fark would pay for health care for EVERYONE short of:

A) Spending every single dime of tax money, and every penny that can be begged, borrowed or stolen from some other country...

or

B) Completely nationalizing ALL health care facilities, workers and technologies and requiring a certain percentage of individuals to work within that sector.

I mean if we spent all of $3000 per person per year on medical care (yeah right) we'd still spend a trillion bucks a year.

citizen905: Mewling liberals, they think someone else should have to pay for their medical care. A veteran is man enough to die for his country when he is young, so he should be willing when he is old and destitute. It's disgraceful that so many of them turn into socialists when they get old.

I can guess you never served a day in your life. Republicans, eager to crowd around a fight screaming for blood and violence, but when the bullets go flying, you turn yellow and run for the hills.

foo monkey: He was shot in Vietnam, but his debilitating accident was decades later.

So what? Governments shouldn't be turning their backs on the health of their own people let alone the ones who have fought for them. At least soldiers joining now may have an idea of what they're getting into. Veterans of past wars were forced into it or told they were unpatriotic cowards if they didn't volunteer. They at least deserve to be given healthcare.

punchaprep: I'm a vet and I'm fighting the VA for my benefits. How do you suppose I pay for health care for my non-service connected injuries. I don't have money or a job. If someone could explain this to me, that would be super.

Suck it up, Nancy. What - do you expect the citizens of the country you fought for, could have died for, and lost friends defending owes you more than a "Thanks, Buddy", a pat on the back and a coupon for coffee at Denny's? What are you, a commie?

Verzio: poisonedpawn78: If you have some method by which we can put the Canadian or German or Japanese government in charge of an American national health care system, hey, I might care about how well it works in those countries.

In an overly simplistic scheme, how about something like this: Uninsured patient shows up at the ER or for a Dr.'s appointment. Hospital/Dr. treats patient, bills Uncle Sam.

This would, in effect, be just like an expansion of Medicare. Not sure what your beef with Medicare is but assuming you DON'T have private insurance wtf do you care? The alternative is no care at all.

Poppa Boner: So what? Governments shouldn't be turning their backs on the health of their own people let alone the ones who have fought for them. At least soldiers joining now may have an idea of what they're getting into. Veterans of past wars were forced into it or told they were unpatriotic cowards if they didn't volunteer. They at least deserve to be given healthcare.

Your troll is weak.

foo monkey: Your troll is weak.

I'm a troll but I wasn't trolling.

Poppa Boner: foo monkey: Your troll is weak.

I'm a troll but I wasn't trolling.

I'm not biting other than to say, "I'm not biting."

Terrydatroll: Soldiers win wars. I have yet to see a cure for cancer. Soldiers 1, Cancer curers 0.

Winning wars is worthless make-work. Every person in the United States military is on welfare, excepting the Navy and Air Force scientists. Give a man a salary to stand here and hold a gun. Give a man a salary to go over there and kill people. Give a man a salary to sit at home and watch SportsCenter. It's all the same to me.

I'm with the minority here. Soldiers are not heroes. They are well compensated and given exceptional job security to perform a job that is relatively dangerous, but not more dangerous than municipal waste management or logging. For someone with no college education, infantry is fat friggin' career. And the ones who do have an education are officers and never in the line of fire anyway.

We pamper our soldiers. I'm sick of the hero worship. They don't deserve free health care for life any more than the heroes who cook our meals and fix our cars.