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 ...
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It’s better in civilian life?
No
Anyway, when people join the military for the benefits they’ll constantly be disappointed. That’s because the military is not a social program. Anyone who sells it like that is lying. 🤥
This is the kind of thing that upsets me.
The government keeps pouring money into illegals, people who won’t work, but fails those who do the right thing. Sure, you can open a ‘learing center’ and be rich. You can drive a Lamborghini and be on EBT, yet somebody who has done the right thing gets left behind. It’s disgraceful that the ‘theft’ of benefits from people like this to pay for ‘grift’ is not considered a ‘high crime or seditious act’.
Lifetime healthcare is an exorbitant level of compensation for a couple of years of service.
Whose running the Veteran's Administration these days?
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20 years.
So , 13 people were helped and NBC was blown off when the problem is system wide. Not much of a story when people heading TRICARE were not forced to respond.
No and BTW in my world, which is hospital and coordinating insurance, anyone with Medicare and Tricare secondary has the best insurance by far.
But it’s FREE and government run.
“…one key promise: healthcare for life.”
Oh, man. Where to even start with this
It’s not a couple years...he’s retired. That’s at least 20 years and up to 30 years.
???
It's for retirees only, unless you've been injured in the line of duty.
If you were injured in the line of duty, instead of disability claims going to a state, your care and compensation remain Federal.
“Who’s running the Veteran’s Administration these days?”
Doug Collins is who’s running the VA -the United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Tricare has absolutely nothing to do with Tricare
The VA medical system is available for those who qualify. That is NOT what this piece is about
This piece leaves out his military position at least in the first ten paragraphs
Is he active duty? Retired? Former military?
“Lifetime healthcare is an exorbitant level of compensation for a couple of years of service.”
Lifetime healthcare is an exorbitant level of promise from a recruiter for a couple of years of service.
It doesn’t exist
“Tricare has absolutely nothing to do with Tricare”
Oh man. I’m going for coffee
The VA has absolutely nothing to do with Tricare
“years of follow-up care that helped him eat and speak again”
I would think additional benefits of such therapy would drop off rather rapidly.
One therapy company burned through about $1,000 of Medicare Part B benefits “teaching” my aunt.
My aunt suffered from dementia and remembered next to nothing.
You are not eligible for Tricare unless you serve 20 years.
A RETIRED Sergeant First Class served more than two years.
My wife is dead because of this. 50 years she paid into medicare and they tried to kick her out of the hospital every week.
I literally had to appeal every week, all this time Joe Biden was flooding the country with illegals who got it all for free without begging. My wife gave up and just did hospice. She was literally crying about having to beg for care while illegals got it all.
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