So before you get all up in arms – know this! I was a military wife for over 10 years and I had to use the on base medical (on more than one base), I had a child using their doctors, I did prenatal care with them, I had my child treated for minor things that babies and little kids need (well baby visits, ear infections, etc) so I KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE.
I am not talking out of my ass when I tell you that the medical system we expect our military and their families to use (and some retirees to use) is FUCKED UP. It is a system that is full of people who could give a flying fuck about you. Sure there are some diamonds in the rough (my son had a great peds dr who was there for a heartbeat because he was transferred and the Ob who actually delivered my son was great – he shared his practice with 3 morons who I saw a lot more than him and other than 1 prenatal appt and the actual delivery of my son, that was all I saw of him – so ya, it isn’t great)
Why am I telling you this? Because when people start to talk about Universal HealthCare in the USA, this is what I think of. A jacked up system that barely works that maintains people who are not “caregivers”, they are simply showing up for their job. I grew up in Canada – where despite what the socialists running for certain US office will tell you, people actually DO PAY for their healthcare. It comes off your paycheck. If you don’t get a paycheck because you are poor or old or ill, it doesn’t. And the dollar value of your care doesn’t matter because you are not billed unless you had something that is considered non-essential (when I was 17 and hit head-on by a drunk driver, my ambulance was considered non-essential- so ya, there is that)
But I am telling you this because as people start to talk about fixing the VA and other things with military people, I want you to know that people in the military sacrifice A LOT – and they do it on ALL LEVELS. Sure on Memorial Day, we remember the dead and their sacrifice and we should always do that. But I also want you to think about the little things that military people do, like not ever seeing the same doctor when they or their loved ones are sick. Seems like a little thing but would you want to do it. Never getting a brand name drug because someone knows better than their doctor about cost savings. Getting turned away from the “free emergency room” with a screaming child with an ear infection because some moron has a “new policy” to send you home for 24 hours. (I put this one because it happened to me and I didn’t leave, I stayed and advocated for my son until they at least did his vitals – during which he projectile vomited all over the nurse — seemed like justice – and he had a very bad infection. And I went for a meeting with the head of their medical department to bitch him out because imagine if it was a new young dumb mom, her baby may have died if she went home because “the doctor told her to”.
So think about all those little things military people and their families do before you say things about them that are unkind or before you make comments about how easy they have it or anything else that you do not know about. I feel very blessed that we had that life and I feel very blessed that we don’t have it anymore and I respect every person who is wearing or who has ever worn a uniform because these little stories are NOTHING compared to what some of them have been through and I hope we work hard to fix the broken systems – like the VA – that these poor people are expected to put up with.