“Veterans suffer from different classes of ailments as active duty military (obviously, with overlap).”
Actually, military bases are trying to get more retirees to get their medical care on base because doctors that see only healthy people tend to lose their skills. A study found that military docs take a while to catch up to full speed when we shift from peace time to war time, and when war time is over we have exceptional military docs who waste their skills again on healthy people. This proposal has the potential to be a great idea.
I stand (well, sit) corrected. If there is a valid medical reason to support this move, then I do not see an issue with it. I would imagine that some veterans who are not near a military medical facility may have issues getting care, but this is already the case for those that are not near a VA medical facility.
Thank you all for your service.
I wish McDill would get this message. We recently had to move my in-laws from the DC area down to Florida. He is 90 years old, a 33-year Navy vet (chaplain) who retired with the rank of Captain. He and his wife were patients at Rader Clinic at Fort Myer. We were told by the McDill clinic that base doctors no longer see retirees because of the need to focus on active duty. The inlaws have the Tricare for Life, thankfully. However, we can't get prescriptions filled at any military clinic other than McDill, which is a 30 minute drive. There is a Coast Guard clinic right down the street, but they told us they were no longer filling retiree prescriptions. I had been filling their Rx's at the Fairfax family clinic where I could pick them up without having to go on base myself.
All of this is not necessarily a bad thing, as we have found excellent care for them, and I get the prescriptions at Walmart or through the mail. It is just the first time for them to be totally outside the military system. They both have dementia, so it's only me that had to manage their transition to civilian care. But it was a learning process, for sure.