TRICARE should admit wrongdoing and pay past due amounts to the UVP states

Military Families Are Getting Shafted By Public Health Insurance

It is no secret that America’s veterans are getting the shaft.  We have seen these troubling headlines:

A fatal wait: Veterans languish and die on a VA hospital’s secret list

Veteran dies after setting himself on fire outside New Jersey VA clinic

America has not lived up to its promise

The stories behind these and similar headlines reveal that America has not lived up to its promise to “care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphan.”

In fact, military families, specifically the children of military families, face similar obstacles in receiving appropriate and needed care.

According to the Chicago Tribune:  in Kansas, an Army spouse says she frequently has trouble getting urgent-care appointments for her young children. She recently spent the night in the emergency room because that was her only option when her 4-year-old’s temperature spiked to 105 degrees. She declined to give her name because she was concerned her husband’s career would be affected, but she voices a common complaint: It’s hard to get appointments for acute-care needs such as high fevers, strep and urinary-tract infections.

“I frequently call, and I’m not able to get the kids in,” she said. “The other day I called; there were 28 callers ahead of me. It was about a 35-minute wait to try and get an appointment, which we couldn’t get.”

So she waits, she said. She waits on the phone. She waits in the emergency room. She waits to see pediatricians because they can address only one issue per visit—if a child has a sprained ankle and a fever, that means scheduling two visits.

Let that “logic” sink in.

Karen Ruedisueli, of the National Military Family Association in Alexandria, Va, tells the story of the military spouse who was 34-weeks pregnant when her family was transferred to a new location: “Before she could see an obstetrician, she had to go to her newly assigned primary-care provider and take a pregnancy test.” 

Seriously?

These frustrating and logically challenged stories are only a few of many, but when it comes to the healthcare of military families, specifically their children, there are 17 million reasons why Rep. Adam Smith has introduced an amendment to address this sobering statistic:  An estimated 28 percent of military children are not up to date on their vaccines.

TriCare Doesn’t Seem to Care

Eleven states (AK, CT, HI, ID, IN, ME, NH, NM, RI, VT, WA) have Universal Vaccine Programs (UVPs), in which they purchase vaccines in bulk from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to provide to all children, regardless of whether they have health insurance coverage.

UVP states purchase and stockpile their immunizations. When a claim arises, the insurance companies then reimburse the states for the costs rather than the individual doctors (because the states are the physical purchaser, not doctors/pharmacies). Since UVP states purchase in bulk, they receive a significant discount off private market prices.

The military’s health care program, known as TRICARE, provides health coverage to nearly 10 million active duty personnel, retirees, reservists and their families. Currently, retirees and their dependents outnumber active duty members and their families—5.5 million to 3.3 million. Yet, the only health benefit payer in the U.S. that has refused to pay UVP states the assessed cost of vaccines administered to their children is TRICARE.

UVP’s Tricare’s recalcitrance threatens military children’s access to public health

This public insurance company claims that it does not have statutory authority to pay UVP assessments because the UVPs are not registered TRICARE providers and do not assess payers on a per-claim basis. As a result of the company’s recalcitrance, states are forced to either cover TRICARE’s costs with state tax dollars or apportion TRICARE’s costs among the other private payers. Over the period of six years, TRICARE’s unpaid assessments total more than $17 million.

By refusing to reimburse UVP’s Tricare’s recalcitrance threatens military children’s access to public health. Their position on vaccine reimbursement reflects a disturbing attitude toward military families by healthcare providers.  As a PUBLIC healthcare organization, the federal government is indirectly discriminating against military families.  Military families should not have to drive all the way to a military base to get vaccinated or to receive care.  This is not only a hardship, but is discrimination against military families, and as TRICARE is a public healthcare organization,  the U.S. federal government is indirectly discriminating against military families.

This is simply unacceptable.

Thankfully, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) has introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 4909) which would mandate that TRICARE participate in the UVP.  Congress can and should pass Rep. Adam Smith’s amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act and TRICARE should admit wrongdoing and pay past due amounts to the UVP states.  This amendment would be one step of the many needed to reform the healthcare system for military families.

Homeless Women Veterans: It’s Worse than you Think

American veterans have sacrificed and risked everything to protect the country and the citizens of the United States. They have been separated from their friends and families and placed in hostile situations, where injury or death is a very real possibility. In spite of this, the number of homeless veterans continues to rise and not enough is being done as far as actually helping homeless veterans get back on their feet.

According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, more than 67% of the homeless vet population served in our military for at least three consecutive years. Around 33% of these veterans were stationed in a location inside a war zone. Statistics also show that homeless veterans in the USA have served in a variety of wars and foreign tours, and approximately half of all US veterans who are homeless served in the Vietnam War , Iraq War and Afganistan War .

Obstacles to Helping Homeless Veterans Find Housing

There are a number of obstacles involved in helping homeless veterans find housing. According toU.S. Department of Veterans Affairs statistics 11% of the adult homeless population involves American veterans. Most of these veterans are single. They tend to live in cities and urban areas, and they struggle with substance abuse, mental health issues like PTSD and other forms of mental illness, or they have co-occurring disorders.

Helping Homeless veterans

Helping homeless veterans find stable housing means addressing the obstacles that prevent the veteran from reaching this goal. Substance abuse and mental health treatment programs can remove obstacles that stand in the way of the veteran finding stable and reliable housing.

The Real Number of Homeless Veterans is Impossible to Determine

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released an estimate that calculates on any given night there will be 47,725 veterans who are homeless. The true extent of homelessness among veterans cannot be calculated with complete accuracy because some of these individuals fall through the cracks 

This number is unacceptably high even according to the best estimates, and more needs to be done helping homeless veterans get off the street or warms cloths to wear and a warm coat and warm meal .

Helping Homeless Veterans: What More can be Done?

Many people mistakenly believe that since there is a VA and other government agencies that are tasked with helping homeless veterans that there is no pressing need to do more, but this is completely false. 

American veterans deserve to be made whole, and to have a place to call home that is their own. As Americans, we owe them this, as well as our gratitude for everything that they have risked or lost while in military service.

One of most important answers is permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless people with special needs, including people with disabilities, mental illness, and addiction problems. 

Source: Shad Meshad in the NVF article, Homelessness: Plenty of Talk, Not Enough Commitment.

Some possible ideas on how you can help the homeless veteran population or in any human being in your area of the USA include:

Take a look around your own local community and see if there is a need for helping someone in need. The odds are if you live in a city or urban area there are veterans and citizens who need help finding stable housing and other resources such as food or warm clothes to wear .

Contact homeless and veteran organizations in your area to see what you can do. Volunteer to help in any way that you can, whether that is filling out paperwork or trying to locate homeless veterans who need assistance and shelter .

What we have done is makeupHomeless “survival kits.” We Create and distribute kits that include items such as Military mess kits, soap, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and cosmetics sleeping bags warm clothing and warm underwear like long johns. ( We Try coordinating this through a group that gives out meals from a van, for example.) 

During cold weather, We organize drives for blankets, coats, hats, scarves, mittens, socks, and the like.

Phone calls. Help people experiencing homelessness contact loved ones by offering the opportunity to make free long distance calls and calls to find work and the help they need we help citizens get ID birth certificates . Donate to help us show these beautiful people they are not alone 

Inquire about helping homeless veterans; you may be surprised at how great the need is in your area.

Donate to veteran organizations and charities that are specifically designed to assist the veteran population. These funds are sorely needed, and even a small donation can have a big impact on the life of a homeless veteran.VETERANS PROJECT is a good start!!

Contact your politicians and elected officials to bring attention to the need for helping homeless veterans. When voters reach out to those in elected positions changes in the current laws or veterans programs are possible so that veterans receive additional assistance and have an easier time accessing the programs designed to help them once their military service is finished.

Give something back by helping homeless veterans. After everything that they have done to keep us safe and protect our country, they deserve our support now more than ever.

Today many Americans their total cluelessness regarding certain positive qualities which, once upon a time, were considered to be attributes that one strove to cultivate in their own character.

I’m speaking of virtues such as loyalty, bravery, camaraderie, patriotism, self-sacrifice, humility, and honor. if you believe in these Qualities we ask you to support the veteran's Project Make a donation today : https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=QFPF8RTAP2UNN

Serving my country was a life-changing experience for me.

Care of Suzanne D Button 

All funds raised from this campaign go to Food .clothing help with housing ,child care medical expenses,Identification cards and transportation to and from work

A little about us...VETERANS PROJECT

We run this non-sectarian, non-partisan organization to ignite discussion on our world and in our communities, to educate our world about the injustice of aggressive violence. 

We believe that in order to reach out to our peers most effectively, we cannot stand on religious arguments alone, and we cannot adhere entirely to one political side in our currently polarized culture. We believe that the consistent life ethic is not for any one religious group or for any one political position, but rather for everyone dedicated to human rights, life and dignity. 

No matter your reason for believing in the inherent value of human life, we hope you can join us, and through our efforts we can together endeavor to make violence unthinkable -

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- to make it history!

YOU CAN BE A PARTNER

FOR PEACE

AND ALL LIFE

Government Alone Can't Take Care Of Our Veterans

"One organization or one government can't support the entire veteran population in the way that they need — not after over a dozen years of war with thousands of military families sacrificing,"

"But if more people pull together and take a more active approach, we'll get a lot more done."

"We have to change our thinking," 

"We can't expect our government to be the whole part and parcel of being the caretaker of men and women in the military."

Supporting the troops is not a political position, but a community responsibility. It comes down to awareness. Because less than one percent of the American population serves in the military, the majority of the country isn't attuned to veterans' everyday needs."That's a staggering statistic when you think that less than two million people defend over 300 million people," 

"So naturally there's going to be a massive part of the population that's going to have no clue as to what military service is about and what the families go through... The military serves in war, and you go to the mall."

Hundreds of non-governmental agencies provide various veterans services and all can use contributions of time, money or goods.I advocates for compulsory military or Peace Corps service for young people as a means of raising awareness of veterans' contributions."If you do that, in less than 10 years, you've created a whole generation of Americans who've had a shared experience of contributing to this country,"

While it is acknowledges the approach might be radical, the result would be a greater understanding of the sacrifices made by service members and their families. But it doesn't have to be so extreme. Just thinking about making a gesture of thanks is a good first step,

Veterans project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing services for those affected by poverty in America,

Homeless “survival kits.” We Create and distribute kits

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AS TRUE PATRIOTS, THESE ARE THE PRINCIPLES ON WHICH WE STAND: GOD, CONSTITUTION, COUNTRY AND OUR NATIONS VETERANS. GOD IS FIRST AND FOREMOST WITH US. FOR APART FROM GOD ,THERE IS NO FREEDOM ! THOSE WHO REFUSE TO BE GOVERNED BY GOD SHALL BE RULED BY TYRANTS!!!

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS 'CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS'. OUR RIGHTS, FREEDOMS AND LIBERTIES ARE UNALIENABLE MEANING THEY ARE ENDOWED ON US BY OUR CREATOR, GOD ALONE! WE HAVE NO OTHER AUTHORITY TO WHICH WE MUST GO IN ORDER TO HAVE AND EXERCISE OUR RIGHTS. OUR CONSTITUTION SERVES 'ONLY' AS A WRITTEN GUARANTEE FROM GOVERNMENT THAT IT WILL NOT INFRINGE ON OUR GOD GIVEN RIGHTS, FREEDOMS AND LIBERTIES !!!

OUR COUNTRY WAS BUILT ON CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES. THEY ARE THE CORNERSTONE OF OUR SUCCESS AS A COUNTRY. A COUNTRY WITHOUT GOD IS AS A SHIP WITHOUT A RUDDER TOSSED TOO AND FRO BY THE STORMS OF THIS WORLD TO END ONLY IN SHIPWRECK. AS TRUE PATRIOTS WE MUST STAND IN PLACE OF THAT MISSING RUDDER STEERING OUR COUNTRY BACK TO GOD AND OUR CONSTITUTION!!!

WE MUST ALWAYS REMEMBER TO HONOR OUR NATIONS VETERANS, THOSE WHO HAVE MADE THE NECESSARY SACRIFICES UP TO AND INCLUDING THE GIVING OF ONES LIFE IN DEFENSE OF OUR GOD, CONSTITUTION AND COUNTRY! IT IS A DEBT WE CAN NEVER REPAY! THEY DESERVE BOTH HONOR AND RESPECT AND IT IS OUR GOAL TO SEE THAT THEY GET IT!!!?

Pro Deo et Constitutione – Libertas aut Mors

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis

Joseph F Barber