Originally Posted by canklecat

I was stationed at NNMC Bethesda in 1978 for school. Most of our programs were in conjunction with Walter Reed. I didn't keep up with the details after I left service in the 1980s, not sure when the two were merged. But it was a great experience at the time.

I never needed any serious medical care while on active duty, so I have no basis for comparison. In six years I had one sick call day for bronchitis, and half a day off for pulling my wisdom teeth during my discharge process. In my teens and early 20s it was difficult to imagine myself ever being seriously ill or injured, despite my daily exposure to young men and women who were seriously ill or injured. I suppose we need that false sense of security and invulnerability at that age. Even after neck and back pain from falling from apparatus during training, I didn't take it seriously or go to sick call. That was a mistake.

I think I've mentioned in previous threads my experience as a patient with VA health care has been a mixed bag. It was non-existent when I applied in the early 2000s after I was disabled when an SUV t-boned my compact car. I was told to apply to the VA for medical care, but they turned me down saying I was too low on the priority list. My service connected disability was from training with the Marines in 1977 and too minor to bother with.

I didn't give the VA another thought until 2018 when I received a reminder letter from the VA that I was already registered for health care. This came right after I was hit by a car while I was on a bike ride, and X-rays revealed my thyroid was calcified and radiopaque. Biopsy showed it was cancer, but encapsulated.

At that point I was aggravated with the civilian health care system I'd signed up with, so I tried the VA, figuring it couldn't be any worse. Turned out to be an excellent experience. The same day I finished registration I saw a doctor for intake, got all my prescriptions filled the same day, and a followup appointment with my assigned primary care doc within two weeks.

My experience with the VA couldn't have been better. In 2018-2019 they redid my thyroid biopsies to be sure they had the latest data. Surgery to remove the cancerous lobe in November 2018. Full scans to check for injuries missed by the civilian hospital after the car hit me in spring 2018. Turned out there were several healed fractures missed by the civilian hospital -- shoulder, winged scapula, cervical stenosis, healed rib fractures, mid-back scoliosis from injuries. Too late for surgery, and I still have chronic neck and shoulder pain. But the VA docs said we could deal with that over the next year or two -- this was in 2019, pre-COVID. Big relief.

By mid-2020 the pandemic ground everything to a trudge. My first primary care doc, who was fantastic, retired in early 2020. That spring I developed a posterior vitreous detachment in my left eye and the clinic got me in to see an ophthalmologist within two days, and a followup a month later. No complaints.

But by mid to late 2020 the wheels fell off. My new primary care doc was almost totally unresponsive (and is still only slightly better two years later). Other than emergency care and annual checkups, appointments and referrals were non-existent. There was a lot of employee turnover. When I caught COVID in late 2021, despite my precautions and being vaxxed, it wasn't bad enough for an ER visit, but my local VA clinic wasn't doing urgent care. I just needed a course of oral prednisone to knock down the upper respiratory inflammation, which happens to me every few years anyway. No big deal, been that way since I was a kid. But I had to resort to Medicare for the first time. They handled it immediately via a telehealth phone app. Video chat with a doc within 15 minutes, picked up the prescription for prednisone that evening.

But when I had a relapse a month later I tried the VA again. Before I visited the clinic they claimed to have an urgent care setup. But when I got there is was very makeshift. The nurse was overworked, grumpy and a bit rude, and claimed that counted toward my limit of two urgent care visits for the year. Supposedly there's no limit, but they just made up some policy because they weren't prepared to actually handle urgent care.

I didn't bother again with the VA until a couple of weeks ago for my annual checkup. Same primary care doc, somewhat more responsive. But they still aren't back to the level of care as 2018-2019.

This month I switched to Amerigroup/Anthem as a Medicare provider. So far, so good, they seem responsive and well organized. The ortho docs redid the neck scans and scheduled me for an ablation to reduce the neck pain. I'm not thrilled with the pain management clinic that was assigned to me by default, but I can change that later.

I'm disappointed that the VA health care system was so poorly prepared for a disruption like the COVID pandemic. I mean, logistics is supposed to be the specialty of the military. But they've let down a lot of service members on active duty, and veterans who had serious service related injuries and illnesses. My own issues were minor compared with what those men and women experienced.