Any advanadage of the VA over Medicare and supplemental medical insurance coverage?

[rayg]

I've been out of the service for a long time and during that time I have never signed up for the VA medical services until I did so a couple of weeks ago just to get my name on file. My status is a non war vet so it is the lesser benefit ranking. The question I have is what if any, advantage do I have care and/or money wise, would I have by going through the VA's services over my current Medicare and the supplement insurance I currently have. At his point, as I've been lucky health wise, almost all of my medical expenses have been covered except for some minor prescription costs. In speaking to a friend who goes to the VA, he tells me he still has to buy medical supplement insurance. Are there some benefits over the current Medicare and the supplement insurances the VA services offer. Ray.

[raymeketa]

Hey rayg

Great question. I'm looking forward to some guidance from others.

Like you, I have not enrolled for the VA medical services. I have been meaning to do it for a couple of years but never get around to it.

My son-in-law is a VN vet and he uses the VA services. He says that there are bad parts and good parts, and also good and bad with Medicare as well. He tells me that his biggest problem is that he has to go to a big city for some services since the one-horse VA clinic here in this one-horse town cannot accomodate some services that the local hospital can.

I hope you get some good answers. I suppose I ought to enroll regardless.

The other ray

[joem]

I use the VA for all my health needs. Even with insurance were I worked the meds were cheaper. I'll stay with the VA and no thionks to O'bummer Care.

[oscars]

Maybe I am a bit dense but how can you sign up for VA medical care when Cat 7 and 8's have been ineligible since 2003? I ran my eligibility awhile back and found I made far too much to be eligible even though I had significant time in a war zone in the late '60's. At this time, I also found out that my category indicated an ineligibility for health care.

[BudT]

oscars, without going into a lot here they the VA will decide wether or not to provide med care at what ever level you are at or not. I have a service conected rating that gives me a higher cat than some but still not high enough for all of it. I also make to much money to get the better care for free (if there is such a thing as free). I also have insurance the kind that Obama calls the Caddy care so when I do go to the VA for something other than my service connected the VA bills my insurance and I have no problems with that. The VA has also tried to bill my insurance for some of my service connected care when I found out I contacted my insurance and put a stop to that but they tried. The VA also billed my insurance for the physical and TB screening for me to be a volinteer DAV driver, I contacted my insurance and put a stop to that to. There are wavers that the VA can give a Vet if they want to. It's a crazy system but it seems to work don't ask me the why they do what they do because I cant get into their heads to figure it out. Hope this doesnt muddy the water worse that it already is.

BudT

[Michaelp]

Unless you got a service connected of at least 50% or higher, or indigent, you best keep the medicare.

The VA is not going to do much for you otherwise.

For some reason guys continue to believe that merely serving guarantees one healthcare.

You can-and should, enroll, but care will be related to your service connected issues and anything else on a sliding scale related to your personal finances.

At 50% they tend to treat one a bit more extensively, but not overall.

Dental requires a 100% rating or serious problems.

See a real life vetrep.

[P. Greaney]

If you are a veteran with an appropriate discharge, you need to sign up at the nearest Veteran's Affairs facility and in the process talk with a benefits counselor.
Some of what I have read here deviates from the reality of what I have personally experienced and observed. In Southern Illinois, western Kentucky and southwestern Indiana no veteran is turned away or denied care based on their category.

[gwp]

Here is a good place to start.

http://www.va.gov/healthbenefits/

[rayg]

Maybe I am a bit dense but how can you sign up for VA medical care when Cat 7 and 8's have been ineligible since 2003? I ran my eligibility awhile back and found I made far too much to be eligible even though I had significant time in a war zone in the late '60's. At this time, I also found out that my category indicated an ineligibility for health care.

Not sure what cat 7, and 8 are but I attended a informational meeting at the VA last Thursday and found out that there is no advantage for me with my ranking to go to the VA's financially and location wise. Unless exempt, you must go to all the VA facilities for care and not your own doctors or testing locations. If you do, you use your own insurance anyway. The VA charges your insurance also. The only advantage I see is if I were to drop my supplement and go to the VA but should I end up in an non VA emergency medical facility I would have to cover any expense Medicare does not cover which if serious could cover a lot of supplement payments. Also The VA charges co-pay $15 for initial care facility and $50 over and above your insurance at the VA hospital each visit used for anything like further care and tests. I'm not sure though if they bill your insurance companies or Medicare for those charges but if not, and if I kept my supplement, I would be paying those supplement premiums as well as those co-pay bills.
Also in the meeting I found out that some of the common drugs are cheaper with Medicare at regular places like Walgreens. Special drugs you may save, but to get a prescription you need to see a doctor at the VA and pay that co-pay.
I believe this is the way I understood it. Therefore I am not going to do the VA, even if no additional costs if any but for the inconvience as I would have to travel 2-3 times further to go to the VA hospitals as opposed to my local ones. I think the VA is an asset for Vets not in Medicare yet or with service connected injuries, Ray

[raymeketa]

So, correct me if I'm wrong.

I am a KW vet with a 10% service connected disability. I have Medicare and Blue Cross. My wife also has Medicare and Blue Cross and we are co-beneficiaries on each other's policies.

So, it appears to me that there is no advantage whatsoever to enrolling with VA.

Both VA and ObamaCare are programs that I am paying for but receive no benefit whatsoever.

Correct??

Ray

[rayg]

Sounds the same as me unless the %10 disability gets you some more of a cost advantage to you. You might want to check on that, Ray

[Dan In Indiana]

10% here, and no other insurance. Was hard to get anything after getting some hearing aids [too close to a bomb dump going up Tet] and the primary doc at my 1st CBOC was a joke, but when we got one right here in town, I transferred real quick. He has got me a bunch of tests at the hospital in Indy, that the other doc just passed on. Several colonoscopys', skin cancers taken out, one hand surgery and waiting on the other hand, and in the process of going back to ENT to try and get my sinuses reamed out as they are swollen damn near shut, and has two polyps in them. Good primary doc [remembers to note the hospital of when my hunting outings occur] that works to get me in for what I ask for, says that is his primary job now that he transferred down from the rat race at Indy. If I have an 0800 at the CBOC, he'll show up in sweats as he runs of a morning at the fairgrounds across the street. All I have ever had to pay so far is for meds. The wait time to get things really done at Indy is pretty bad as they are under staffed big time [full of IU School of Medicine students], under equipped, and under funded. Getting worse as I read there is now a big influx of Vietnam Vets just now getting in the system. Get one of those Colon tests where you take the Popsicle stick and do the 3 day wipe thing any time I ask for it. If I can ever get rid of this bad Sinus problem and start breathing good again, I may start going down to the fair grounds and run with him.

[RED]

there is no advantage for me with my ranking to go to the VA's financially and location wise. Unless exempt, you must go to all the VA facilities for care and not your own doctors or testing locations. If you do, you use your own insurance anyway. The VA charges your insurance also. The only advantage I see is if I were to drop my supplement and go to the VA but should I end up in an non VA emergency medical facility I would have to cover any expense Medicare does not cover which if serious could cover a lot of supplement payments. Also The VA charges co-pay $15

It all depends on your VA facility and how you are put into the system. The local American Legion helped me. I also have a hearing loss that was documented in my exit physical back in 1973. I lost my health coverage when my wife was forced to retire. To keep it in force, the premiums would have been over $700/month. I signed up for Medicare and bought a supplement policy. What I found was I can get care at the VA including hearing aids, eyeglasses, emergency room services from the VA and at very modest prices.

I also found the VA would bill my supplement and they would pay $4 here $7 there and when you added it up at the end of the month, that would total out at about $25. Meanwhile I was paying $125 a month for the Humana supplement. I did that for 12 months and found out that if I didn’t have the supplement, my VA charges would remain the same. In other words I paid out $1500 so the VA could collect $300 from them. I dropped my Medicare supplement and my VA charges have remained the same… Potentially A BIG MISTAKE.

Once you sign up for the supplemental policy and then drop it, you can never get it back. At that point the so called “open enrollment” period does not apply to you.

I do not pay $50 per visit nor do I pay a $15 copay and do not know why you have to. My copay for RX meds is $8/month/med.

One final thought. The care I get at the VA is not really very good. I see a Nurse Practitioner instead of an MD and she is great. I spent 4 days in the VA hospital with a severe bronchial infection. The facility was great, the nurses were outstanding but the Dr.'s were awful. Even the nurses were laughing at them and called them "baby docs." The oldest one looked like he was too young to buy a beer at the tavern. One "Dr." would say one thing then another would say the opposite 20 minutes later.