Now this needs to get fixed somehow

[hifigator]

A good friend of mine just got back about a month and a half ago from his last tour in Iraq. He is 24 and will be officially discharged in November. A few weeks ago, he started getting sick. After several days of flu like symptoms and not being able to eat, he started getting sicker. I won't gross you out with the details, but the point is that his family ended up taking him to the V.A. hospital here in Gainesville. After a couple of hours of paperwork and waiting around in the waiting room, they realized that he was still officially "active duty." The V. A. hospital can't see him. He can't go to any other area hospital, unless he pays out of pocket. They ended up taking him to the emergency room and he was prescribed some anti-biotics and referred to one of the hospitals for active duty. They are in Pensacola (6 hours away), Sarasota (3 1/2 hours away) and Jacksonville (1 1/2 hours away). There are more in south Florida, but those are the closest ones. Here is someone who has served his Country for 6 years and is getting the total run around because of a bunch of red tape BS. Personally, I think if you are active military you should be able to go into ANY hospital and get seen. I would understand if some verification needed to be done or something, but to be told you have to drive several hours or pay for it out of pocket is unfair in my mind. Before anyone turns this into a general health care issue, please save that for a different thread.

As it works out, he has now been diagnosed with Calidis (sp?). I don't know much about it, but it is essentially the same thing as Crones disease except it attacks the large intestines instead of the small intestines. As I understand it, that is a good thing, since parts of the large intestines can be removed, but it is still a serious illness.

My point here is what do you all think about some policy whereby active military must go to a handful of hospitals? Like I said, from my perspective, if there is anyone who should be able to walk into any hospital and get seen, active duty military would be at the top of my list.

[Deleted]

Universal Health Care would fix this.

Just sayin', that's all...

[HoyaNyr320]

This is one issue that we are in complete agreement. The VA system is a travesty and both candidates (thankfully) want to reform it. The big culprit in blocking reform is the Pentagon (see.. I'm trying my hardest not to blame Bush for this, since we're actually in agreement here). The concern for them is that once you are no longer active duty, the only health care benefits that carry over are combat related- so if the illness is NOT related to combat duty, you are on your own. So if you are active duty, they want you to be treated in one of their hospitals so they can ascertain if your illness is combat related.

Colitis is a debilitating disease- you are absolutely right. In some cases, removal of a section of intestine is one of several treatments- but there's no guarantee that the symptoms won't return. The other disease you referred to, Crohn's Disease, affects the small intestine. The research and treatment of these two diseases is an issue that is near and dear to me, so if you or your friend wants more information on them definitely visit www.ccfa.org or PM me.

[Coast2CoastHoya]

That's a terrible situation for your friend and all our brave men and women who serve, hifi. Good luck and best wishes to him.

[kchoya]

Sept 15, 2008 15:24:50 GMT -5 @cam said:

Universal Health Care would fix this.

Just sayin', that's all...

Except that he'd have to wait 9 months to get treatment, and would have to Jacksonville to be seen...

[kchoya]

Sept 15, 2008 15:17:10 GMT -5 hifigator said:

My point here is what do you all think about some policy whereby active military must go to a handful of hospitals? Like I said, from my perspective, if there is anyone who should be able to walk into any hospital and get seen, active duty military would be at the top of my list.

If we're going to have a system where there are VA hospitals, then I don't think it's a negative that you have to go to a VA hospital to get free treatment. The alternative is having no VA and having a VA insurance system, like medicare or medicaid. I don't know how appealing that it.

As it stands, there are hospitals and clinics devoted solely to Veterans. I think that's a good thing. Of course, there's not a hospital in every town, and it may necessitate travelling for health care, but that's no different than a lot of other situations for any normal person. Just here in Salt Lake City, we have people come in from Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada and New Mexico for cancer treatment, surgeries and other treatment. It's a comment on the availability of health care overall, not just in the VA system.

I feel for your friend. My brother has been wracked by colitis/Chron's and they're some of the worst stuff you can go through.

I don't think getting rid of the VA system is the answer.

[hifigator]

Update for anyone interested: his family took him back to the ER this morning and his situation was deemed an emergency and they admitted him. Now the medical expense issues are gone, now we just need him to get better. They did a colonoscopy and biopsy around lunchtime today. We will hopefully know more tomorrow. His mom said that he had lost 25 pounds since he got back, which actually is just over a month now. She said that he did have Calitis, and in her words, ulcers. I'm not sure if they are related or not. In any case, he is where he needs to be now. She did say that he had a bowel movement and that they were heating up his lunch. She was glad that he seemed to have some appetite.

On the larger issue, I think that health care is a major problem. I don't think that just handing it over to the government is a good idea. Without making this too political of a debate, I can't think of 1 thing that the government has done both well and efficiently. I would say that overall our military is very good and has done well, but efficiently is another matter. For that matter, I don't know of many that have been done efficiently at all. From the numbers alone, you could argue that public education has been efficient, simply by comparing average amounts of monies spent per student to the private sector, but many would question the quality. Again, that is a topic for another thread.

In any case, I think that health care is a topic that we don't need to politicize too much. I know that is a pipe dream, but still, I would like to see a favorable solution that both sides can agree on.

I have to run now though. More to come tomorrow on this.

[Bando]

Sept 15, 2008 16:51:21 GMT -5 hifigator said:

Update for anyone interested: his family took him back to the ER this morning and his situation was deemed an emergency and they admitted him. Now the medical expense issues are gone, now we just need him to get better. They did a colonoscopy and biopsy around lunchtime today. We will hopefully know more tomorrow. His mom said that he had lost 25 pounds since he got back, which actually is just over a month now. She said that he did have Calitis, and in her words, ulcers. I'm not sure if they are related or not. In any case, he is where he needs to be now. She did say that he had a bowel movement and that they were heating up his lunch. She was glad that he seemed to have some appetite.

On the larger issue, I think that health care is a major problem. I don't think that just handing it over to the government is a good idea. Without making this too political of a debate, I can't think of 1 thing that the government has done both well and efficiently. I would say that overall our military is very good and has done well, but efficiently is another matter. For that matter, I don't know of many that have been done efficiently at all. From the numbers alone, you could argue that public education has been efficient, simply by comparing average amounts of monies spent per student to the private sector, but many would question the quality. Again, that is a topic for another thread.

In any case, I think that health care is a topic that we don't need to politicize too much. I know that is a pipe dream, but still, I would like to see a favorable solution that both sides can agree on.

I have to run now though. More to come tomorrow on this.

Just to add to this and clarify, no one (well, Kucinich maybe) is advocating universal health care per se, merely universal health insurance. This ranges from Obama's relatively tame plan that uses private insurers to expand coverage, to a single-payer solution like France's that would make the government the sole insurer (with the option for private coverage if you wanted to pay for it). None of these are the same things as Britain's national health, where doctors work for the government and hospitals are government-run.

[SFHoya99]

Ulcerative Colitis can be incredibly nasty. There are degrees in cases, so hopefully your friend's case ends up milder than expected.

Here's an inspiring story of a professional athlete who just came back from a sudden onset case after years away from baseball: www.baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?p=1017

[hifigator]

Thanks SF, I will forward that to the family.

[hifigator]

Here's an update:

The final diagnosis was the ulcerative colitis and he has responded well to the medication. He was discharged on Wednesday night and is at home now. All more serious tests came back negative -- no small intestine damage and no sign of the "c" word. He is expected to make a full recovery.