Posted on 04/24/2015 11:49:17 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Hospital staff broke the news to a Tacoma, Wash. woman that her operation to remove a tumor from her breast would not be happening.
Medical benefits tied to her retired husband’s U.S. Army service had expired just 12 hours before, a detail on the 41-year-old woman’s benefits card that no one noticed until she was already prepped for surgery at Madigan Army Medical Center, according to a KING-TV report.
Patricia Zuniga described the bearers of bad news as “upfront” about the awkward discovery.
“You’re not having your surgery today. You do not have health care. You do not have benefits,” Zuniga was told during her Jan. 27 appointment at the hospital.
She had been led to believe her health care expired on Jan. 30, six months after her husband’s injuries discharged him from service.
She organized the appointment in December after learning a mammogram and needle biopsy found a tumor. Doctors at the time said it was not malignant.
Zuniga still doesn’t know how bad her medical condition, but she fears cancer is overtaking her body especially after she found another lump over her thyroid gland, she told KING-TV.
Unable to have the either tumor removed on her own dime, she’s waiting for new benefits with the Affordable Care Act to kick in.
“I feel scared. I’ve got two daughters. I’m a young woman and I want to live. That’s all I think, every day when I take a shower, when I see it,” Zuniga added.
They sentenced her to death.
They are high fiving each other for their bonus money.
This is done all the time with ‘free’ healthcare in Canada and England as examples. Thousands die and the hospital administrators and the insurance exec make millions.
Oooh, that hurts just hearing about it. I must say that I opted out of military health care many years ago, many being about 11 or 12? My wonderful, wonderful AF doctor testified before the Surgeon General of the AF about cases that were not getting adequate care, my case being one of them. He came back and told me he’d never make rank again because he’d spoken up. He had 14 years in, including prior Navy (we were a Navy family) and he got out and moved to MI. (from GA) I cried when he told me he was leaving. I asked him Who will take care of me? I’m crying now, just remembering that day. God will provide, he told me. I had complicated care back then. How much more complicated it got in more recent years! If he’d only known what would happen.
I’m sorry for your horrible care. What I meant was is that my civilian care has been taken care of so well through Tricare (Prime) and now Tricare for Life. I’m only 58. Two cancer and chemo episodes here at this last few years. God has provided.
I took my yellowed, 45-year-old VA card to a VA clinic, filled out some papers, and waited. They replied by mail, and said I wasn't eligible (since 2009) with only two exceptions:
1) I'd returned from Iraq or Afghanistan, or
2) was the victim of a sexual attack.
An appeal form was included in the letter. :-/
Pretty good at taking care of young troops or wounded warriors
Glad it has worked out for you. Hope you’ve had family nearby, or perhaps more importantly, close friends and a caring church & pastor/priest.
No, none of the above. What I did have is a network of online prayer warriors, who held my arms up. God provided.
Tricare is something I know about and this is wrong. If you are married to a military retiree your benefits never expire unless you remarry.
Now you card may expire, but that does not mean the benefits have, you just have to go to a base or armory and get a new card.
If her husband is retired she is still covered by Tricare, can also take out policy with Tricare Prime for greater coverage.
There’s such a thing as COBRA
This article is confusing (no surprise, MSM).
It says the husband “separated due to an injury” from the army with 13 years service and would have Tricare for 6 months afterwards.
“I beg to differ: I owe my life to military doctors. They are usually superb.”
Depends on your definition of “superb”, I suppose.
I can point to many ruined lives thanks to incompetence of military doctors. I didn’t let my family go near them when I was in the military.
It is a socialist system - perhaps you had enough pull/rank to get the best doctors.
There are good and bad everywhere, but the best ones often leave the military, because they can.
Ah, horse hockey. You’re either completely clueless or just a malcontent. The quality of care I received as a Lance Corporal from the Navy medical system was exactly the same as I received as a lieutenant colonel - outstanding.
A navy medical team got me to the hospital ( Charlie Med, Danang) and saved me from dying of the gun shot wound I got 15 minutes before. I went through five Navy hospitals and a year of surgeries and I made it through 24 more years of service because that high quality care.
There aren’t better quality or more dedicated or more professional medical people on earth.
Wish you’d quit the comic book generalizations: I’ve got 28 years more experience than you have.
” You’re either completely clueless or just a malcontent.”
Yeah, that must be it. There is no problem with military medicine. I’m completely wrong, and the people I know that have been directly maimed and had their lives destroyed with little recourse from military medicine incompetence are also just clueless malcontents.
(BTW, the clue that you were army was the phrase "the military": only the army or just civilians use that - everyone else uses their service, i.e., "I was in the Marines, Navy, or Air Force).
“The Military” does not refer to any specific branch of the service. In my case it was not the Army.
What happened to this woman is the sort of “superb” military medicine that you will find in most places outside of DC, soon to be a universal bureaucratic characteristic of socialized medicine everywhere in the US. Maybe the doctors were OK, but she’ll never know. They gave her the bums rush out the door. Superb Medicine. Superb doctors.
She might have to wait a while...
My granddaughter who is on Obamacare because her dad took a new job with crappy medical benefits had to wait about nine months to be approved for a simple tonsillectomy...
A routine surgery
Yeah, right. Either you didn’t serve in uniform or you’re embarrassed to say what service you were in. BS flag is on the field!
I’m sure you’d be a superb psychologist.
During the height of the Iraq/Afghanistan wars, I made it a routine to visit the wounded at Bethesda and Walter Reed. They got really superb care. If you had been anywhere around any of this activity, you would have kept your trap shut with your criticisms of military medicine.
If you feel compelled to spout off about things you know nothing about, shut off your computer and go fishing instead. It'll save yourself a lot of embarrassment.
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