Posted on 05/08/2026 6:50:05 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
For more than a decade, Guy Shoemaker pitched military service to potential new recruits with one key promise: healthcare for life.
“You’re going to have medical and dental for the rest of your life,” said Shoemaker, a retired Army sergeant first class and recruiter who spent a year in Afghanistan. “I used that phrase too many times.”
That promise held up when Shoemaker, 64, of Fort Worth, Texas, was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2021. TRICARE — the military’s healthcare program for active service members, retirees and their families — covered the chemotherapy, radiation and years of follow-up care that helped him eat and speak again.
Then, last year, TRICARE moved his coverage to a new contractor called TriWest Healthcare Alliance, a change that he said made him lose faith in the system — and question his longtime recruitment pitch.
“I mean, you go from flawless, I’m being taken care of, to just getting dumped,” he said.
Suddenly, tens of thousands of dollars in previously approved claims were overturned and money that had been paid to providers was clawed back. Shoemaker stopped going in for his regular therapy appointments, no longer able to pay.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Name it
He should have applied for social security/medicaid w a catastrophic illness. The military is not and was not going to come through.
I am sorry for you loss, and I express my sympathies for a system that has been hijacked by the greedy.
For more than half his career he lied for the government while enjoying cushy land billets instead of collecting Sea Pay.
Reads like this guy feels guilty.
It does exist, part of the deal of pulling a hitch or being drafted was lifetime VA, it is means tested so if you are poor it is free, and on up the scale of paying a portion based on income.
About 6 years ago my lifetime best friend told me that the best thing that ever happened to him was me tricking him into going into the army with me during the Vietnam war, at the time of the phone conversation he was getting his dialysis treatments from the VA for free, he has since died.
“ It does exist, part of the deal of pulling a hitch or being drafted was lifetime VA, it is means tested so if you are poor it is free, and on up the scale of paying a portion based on income.”
Sigh. Yes. I am well aware. This article is about the whining re tri care not the VA
The income that rates VA is very low.
For anyone in the military, certainly retired military, to expect guaranteed anything for life is beyond what anyone should put up with.
Oh.
You omitted the key phrase in the headline.
How much of your life are you willing to give for nothing except for the risk of death.
‘ You omitted the key phrase in the headline.’
What phrase?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.