*****
When we first moved out here, I had no health insurance so I went down and applied at the VA, not for free medical care but hoping I could get a nice discount through them from another insurer, but because I was a non-conflict Vet, I didn't have a service related medical issue, and because I wasn't destitute, they said I wasn't eligible. I appealed it and got another Fuck You, so I dropped it. I went without insurance for the next 8 years until my MediCare kicked in. No big deal.
A non-conflict Vet..... Had I enlisted before 1975 or after January 1980, I'd have been eligible. I enlisted in 1978.
Then a couple months ago at my American Legion meeting, we had a couple women from the VA come to speak and they explained that Vets were under-represented in my area and they needed to boost those numbers to get more funding from the Federal Government. They asked who wasn't getting any care under VA, and I think I was the only one in the room that raised their hand, so the Head Babe asked me to stay after the meeting so she could speak to me.
After the meeting she wanted to know why I wasn't getting VA care and I explained I had tried to sign up twice but was refused and besides, there was nothing wrong with me. I have zero service related conditions. She told me to sign up again because there were new conditions that might make me eligible such as burn pits and contaminated water supplies at military bases. I told her that I was stationed in Germany and their water environmental standards are higher than here in the States, and while we did occasionally burn classified trash, it was all paper and the 2 or 3 times I got stuck doing it, I stood upwind. I wasn't going to lie just so VA could get more funding. Then with one final jab, I told her, "Look around the room. Everybody in here considers me to be a Vet, but my own government doesn't."
She looked at me like I was retarded and then handed me a packet with another application and told me to try again. Fuck that and fuck VA. If they're that broke, I'm damned sure not going to take resources from them that can go to better use for a Vet that truly deserves them.
