I agree. I had and have 100% VA health care. I refuse to use these idiots. I prefer to pay about $200 a month to BCBS of TN. Then I pay $20 for specialists and $10 for primary care. An MD I highly respect, told me about the VA’s he worked for.
He flat out told me the VA will kill you. I use the best MD’s in Nashville. I refuse to use the VA these days. I did have several awesome VA MD’s. They are gone now. I believe Veterans should go to MD’s they prefer. Not those the VA assigns one.
Oh, yes the VA will kill you if you let them. I’m on a bunch of meds from my private doctor. No problems in over 15 years. Got back into the VA last year and about 3/4s of the meds they prescribed have a known side effect of heart attack so I don’t take them after having chest pains after taking them.
I had to go back to my practice of researching every VA med before taking it. Then the VA pharmacy calls me and a ‘visiting specialist’ is asking to see if I’m taking the 3 recently prescribed meds that gave me bad heart pain. Hard No on many VA meds. Oh, and they won’t prescribe the anti-coagulant Clopidigril which my private doctor put me on post-operation.
Do you realize how little you are paying for private BCBS insurance, and related copay? Probably less than 1/10th the cost for the average schlub.
I agree about the VA. I’ll never darken their doorway.