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| Bill in Germany U. S. Occupation Forces 1947 |
For about twenty-five years now I hear that recording after I phone in a prescription refill to the Veterans Administration.
I have full Medicare coverage. I also have supplemental coverage with AARP (United Healthcare). My so called "free Medicare" (with supplemental) costs me $462.00 a month ($189 deducted monthly from my modest Social Security account - I had to start collecting early since I had no job at 62 - and $275 a month for my supplemental insurance. Thus I now pay $5,544 a year a year for medical coverage which doesn't include eye care, dental or hearing. The eye care is only covered by one eye examination a year, I pay for eye glasses which I just got at the discount B.J.'s for $417 (two pairs of eyeglasses - sunglasses one). My dental, which I need, I've paid thousands of dollars over the years out of pocket. For a short period of time when I had a full-time job in Philadelphia, I did have dental insurance which paid for part of my dental expenses, usually just the cleaning. Now days I pay everything out of pocket and as you know, if you go to the dentist it is VERY EXPENSIVE. I used to go to a gay dentist, not because he was gay (a coincidence) but because he was good and he was. But I stopped going to him because he took every Friday off to fly down to Miami Beach Florida to cavort with his gay friends at the former Versace home which is now a fou for restaurant ("fine dining"). It bugged me that I was contributing to that lavish and decadent lifestyle. Main reason I changed was because when I needed him for an emergency he wasn't available. I changed dentists and now I used another dentistry, which is also very good and expensive but at least I don't know where the money is going. But I digress. As usual, I start of a blog post with one thing in mind and my stream of consciousness takes me down a completely different path. Back to the subject at hand, my prescriptions.
Back when I was working at the bank for my main career (before hotel work at the end of my career), I had full medical coverage. Never used it once. Never. After I lost my job I figured I had better have some kind of coverage. I remembered the VA. When I joined the Army back in 1960 I was told I had "Free lifetime medial coverage.....if I needed it." Well, I needed it then in 1994 when I was sans medical coverage. I didn't want to take a chance without medical coverage so I decided to swallow my pride and I made a visit to the VA to sign up. "Swallow my pride?", remember back then only poor, loser vets signed up for the VA. When I asked a good friend of mine if he was signing up, he said "Why should I? I HAVE a doctor and I have a job." He was also of the entitled class who had everything handed to him basically his whole life. College education paid for by his family. Wife to take care of running his household which included everything from cooking his meals to running errands and paying the bills. One time we went out to dinner together and I casually asked him how much he was earning from his job and he said "I don't know." He said his wife "takes care of that." I was astounded. Didn't even know how much he made? Well, of course there came a time when he too lost his job, because he was of that age when corporation discard older workers even if they did work in Human Resources, which he did. He was in shock when he lost his job. Bereft of a plan, he broke down. Of course his wife took the reins again and studied their options and made a plan. Since he was eligible for VA benefits (he was drafted, God forbid he would ever join the Army voluntarily). So he swallowed his pride and applied at the local VA, the same VA when I had applied when I lost my job. He now receives his prescriptions through the VA and has no loss in status in his neighborhood. I was talking to him recently at the high cost of heart medication that both he and Bill take and he said "I get mine through the VA too." My friend has come a long way, not ashamed to admit he gets his medications through the VA.I have to admit I was surprised hearing him say this but even he realizes the value of saving money because prescriptions can be and are expensive in this country.
There came a time during the Bush administration that the Republicans decided that they should save some more money but cutting the benefits to veterans like me, who weren't disabled and discontinue our VA benefits. You know, the Republicans of "we can never had too many tax cuts for our rich, corporate paymasters?" There was a predicable outcry from veterans organizations so the Republican controlled Congress decided to grandfather the benefits. Those veterans, like me, who were already receiving prescription drug benefits but new veterans would not. The Republicans instituted eight classes of veterans. Those who has no disabilities were classified at the lowest level, Class 8. Those veterans with disabilities received lower classifications. So if you were a blind, paralyzed, veterans missing limbs you would be classified as one, two or three. Bill is now classified as four, because of his blindness. He pays nothing for his medications. I am still classified as eight, and I pay $8 for a 30 day supply or $24 for a ninety day supply of medication, no matter what the medication. By the way, I changed my registration from a lifetime Republican to Democrat when the Bush administration and the Republicans in Congress tried to take away my promised Veterans benefits. That's when I realized the Republicans care nothing for the average man or woman nor do they honor promises. Remember when I joined one of the promises made was "Lifetime medical care.....if needed." Ironically after I lost my job at the bank and didn't have medical coverage, it was a good thing I signed up at the VA because shortly there after I needed two major surgeries. I also had two medical emergencies and needed medications. Thank God I had signed up at the VA. I wasn't too proud to sign up either, I earned those benefits. I put my life on the line for three years for that promise. The same as bill did for nine years of total service with both the Army and the Air Force when he was stationed with the occupation forces after World War II in Germany (Army) and then Japan (Air Force).
Bill had joined the Army when he left his home in Georgia. There was no promise of a paid college education for him either, his only choice to support himself when he left school was to join the service. That was also my choice. My Mother told me back in Nine Grade when it was time for me to choose a pre college course or other high school course upon entering high school. No comfortable golden path for us to enter adult hood. No fraternity, college campuses, beer parties, fun a frolic. Oh wait, there were beer parties and "fun and frolic", just with a bunch of other guys like us who came from more modest family circumstances (read "poor as shit.")
For many years I was resentful of my college bound friends whose families had the means to prepare them for a successful career in adulthood by paving the way for them by paying their college expenses. I guess I still have some of that resentment, especially when many of them took useless courses like "political science" (what the fuck is that?) or failed in college like my friend I spoke of earlier. He wasn't dumb, in fact he was and is very intelligent, more so than me. When we were in school together he rarely studied for tests but always got good grades, mostly A's and a few B's and never anything lower. And he did it with such easy. Maybe because his last name started with a "B" and he always sat in front of the class whereas I always sat in the back because my last name starts with a "T." I understand schools don't do that now, seat pupils alphabetically, because it causes psychological harm and it does. I can attest to that. And the fact that I was tall for my age I was always told to "stand in the back" whenever for group settings. Another blow to my fragile sense of self confidence especially me with a father he constantly mocked me and never gave me any reason for self pride. For my grades, mostly B's and some C's and an occasional D, I worked for those grades. I'm still not the sharpest knife in the drawer but I work folks. And I work hard to make up for my lack of natural intelligence or brain matter.
Some of us are just born smarter, what we do with our lives is our own choice. Others have to work at making our place in the world because little is handed to us. I think this is one reason why so many poor white men are resentful of minorities these days getting all the attention. They feel those minorities are getting free ride, which isn't true of course, why they have to work hard for anything they get. But again I digress into a political discourse. Been there, done that but it's not productive to rehash those old arguments again or as others say "beat that dead horse."
So I placed my order for a refill of my anti cholesterol medication last night and I am again reminded that at one time of my life I had the right decision.
Note: there are more than a few times when I have made the wrong decision in my life but joining the Army wasn't one of them. One of the best decisions I ever made in my life. I learned more from my three years in the Army that I would ever have learned in eight years of college.
