A comment
For some strange reason, Barney, I'm unable to comment on Barney the Old Fat Man's blog, and since I know you read my blog, I will comment here as if I were on your blog.
The VA has made a lot of changes in the last few years, Barney, and is doing a lot better job than they did in the past, and I'm saying that as someone who refused to even join the VA until three or four years ago and who now gets all of my medical care from the VA.
To provide free medical attention to millions of veterans such as myself,…. And yes, I know being in the Air Force is not like being in the REAL military, but that's where I ended up, so what can I say?….. The VA has two kinds of medical facilities available. Large regional hospitals, where you can have almost any medical procedure done, and smaller, more nearby local clinics, where less challenging illnesses can be treated. So yes, sometimes the regional hospitals can be kind of far away, but the VA will pay for your transportation costs to get there, and if that doesn't work, the VA will pay for local civilian doctors to handle your medical problems. As an example, I've been using my dermatologist for years before I joined the VA, and now the VA pays that same dermatologist to take care of me.
When you sign up to use the VA, you will be assigned your own general practitioner MD who will handle all of your easy medical problems at the local clinic that you have chosen, and make appointments for you at the regional hospital for more complicated problems, or help you make appointments with a local civilian doctor of your choice if the VA can't make things work for you.
So the point is, if paying for your medical care is a financial problem, then signing up with the VA might be something they can help you with. What the VA can do about long-term care, I have no idea, but it might be beneficial if you look into it. But since it's free, and the VA can't make you do anything you don't want to do, it certainly can't cause any harm. And who knows? The VA might be able to do more for you than Medicare does. I dropped my Medicare coverage a couple of years ago because the VA was doing for free what Medicare was charging me for. I know not everyone will agree with me. But Medicare is mostly a relatively inexpensive federal government insurance program available to anyone. But VA benefits are EARNED by us. And paid for with OUR blood, sweat, and tears.
Tom
One of several dirt roads in my area, that I've been known to walk on. Before most of the snowbirds left, this road got pretty busy with off-road vehicles, but now it's pretty quiet. I saw one truck go by yesterday.... Not very busy for a Saturday.
Who in their right mind gets up this early every morning? Only me? Sometimes I get up to enjoy the beauty of the sun rising over the mountains, and sometimes I even get out of bed early to enjoy the cool morning air. But mostly the reason is more mundane than that.... I have to pee.
Every once in a while, I like to throw in a picture of my teeny tiny home. After all, it's my teeny tiny home that allows me to enjoy the freedom to live the kind of boondocking life that I enjoy.... Attaboy, teeny tiny home, keep it up.