VA medical benefits, who is it for?

[david1833]

Too Pissed right now, but be sure I will comment. Signed, Cold War Warrior

I did not see your apology when I made this statement for that I apologize.

[david1833]

Print ArticleDiscover the expert in you.

Who Can Use the Veterans Administration Hospital?

By Linda Richard, eHow Contributor

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs provides over 1,700 health care facilities in the 50 states and U.S. territories, accessible for medical care to veterans who qualify. Some veterans receive preference, especially for treatment of service-related disabilities or illnesses. Length of service, income level, and VA resources available are other determinants.

• Military Service
  
  
  • You may qualify for VA medical care if you served in active military, naval or air service with an honorable discharge. This includes Reservists or National Guard members called for active duty by a federal order who completed the duty. The length of your service in the military affects your priority group, along with your present income level. Female veterans have the same benefits as males.
    
    
  Income Threshold
  
  
  • Non service-related medical care has income threshold guidelines. Geographic thresholds are by metropolitan statistical areas and depend on the number of dependents the service member has as well. Once you apply for VA health care benefits and complete the income information, Veterans Affairs compares your income statistics with the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration records. VA contacts you for verification of any differences.
    
    
  Application
  
  
  • Complete VA form 10-10EZ, the application for health benefits. Online application is available. You can indicate if you want an appointment at the time of application. Veterans requesting care for a service-connected disability get preference or a higher priority group assignment. A financial assessment considers gross household income, including earned and unearned income. Asset values do not include your homestead, but includes other property, stocks, bonds, IRAs, bank accounts, and cash.
    
    
  Result
  
  
  • If your income is in excess of the VA national threshold or the geographic threshold for the area where you live, the VA may lower your priority group assignment. You may be charged co-pays or be billed for non service-connected medical care. Your priority group also determines how quickly you receive an appointment.
    
    
  Priority Groups
  
  
  • Veterans who have disabilities greater than 50 percent or veterans unemployable because of a service-related disability are in priority group one. Group two includes veterans with 30 to 40 percent service-related disabilities. Group three includes 10 to 20 percent disability and former POWs, purple heart recipients, and veterans with disability which occurred in the line of duty. Group four includes housebound veterans and catastrophic disability veterans. Group five includes Medicaid and VA pension recipients. This group includes non-compensable zero percent service-connected veterans with low net worth below the VA threshold. Group six includes World War I veterans and other groups with illnesses related to Department of Defense testing. Group seven veterans have gross income limits below the geographically-adjusted income threshold and these veterans agree to co-pays, and group eight veterans are over the income limits with agreement to co-pays.
    
    

Resources

[K.M.I.A]

You signed on the line..................And stood on the wall..............And some like me fell off that wall and landed on my head,repeatedly.

[JoBa]

I've said this before on this forum; This is a forum. A forum is a place where folks can get together to bat their ideas, or one common idea, around. It is how we validate, or disqualify our own thinking.

Forums like this are especially valuable to grumpy old men such as myself, who due to their attitude, live alone. We have no one to tell us if we are nuts or not.

Therefore, If I put something out here for y'all's consideration, and I find my thinking to be in the minority, or flat out wrong, I see nothing wrong with apologizing if I have offended, or with re-adjusting my thinking. This is what forums are for.

So to all of you, thanks for your input. You have helped me considerably.

I will send in my 10-10EZ.

-John

[Skyshark]

I've said this before on this forum; This is a forum. A forum is a place where folks can get together to bat their ideas, or one common idea, around. It is how we validate, or disqualify our own thinking.

Forums like this are especially valuable to grumpy old men such as myself, who due to their attitude, live alone. We have no one to tell us if we are nuts or not.

Therefore, If I put something out here for y'all's consideration, and I find my thinking to be in the minority, or flat out wrong, I see nothing wrong with apologizing if I have offended, or with re-adjusting my thinking. This is what forums are for.

So to all of you, thanks for your input. You have helped me considerably.

I will send in my 10-10EZ.

-John

John, I am not sure if this means anything to you or not but the last two posts you made in this thread had earned you SO much more respect than you could imagine.

You are correct, that is what foprums are for. IF everyone agreed on everything here then this would be a pretty boring place. The fact that we can disagree and debate, sometimes argue but still stick around speaks volumes for who we are and the type of people we are.

Brothers fight, brothers argue. That is what family does. You have two thumbs up in my book brother.

Now.

Get your fucking 4th point of contact down to the fucking VA and get what YOU deserved. It is your right. You defended those rights and earned those rights. There is a difference between taking advatage of your rights and taking advantage of the system.

AATW!!

[JoBa]

John, I am not sure if this means anything to you or not but the last two posts you made in this thread had earned you SO much more respect than you could imagine.

You are correct, that is what foprums are for. IF everyone agreed on everything here then this would be a pretty boring place. The fact that we can disagree and debate, sometimes argue but still stick around speaks volumes for who we are and the type of people we are.

Brothers fight, brothers argue. That is what family does. You have two thumbs up in my book brother.

Now.

Get your fucking 4th point of contact down to the fucking VA and get what YOU deserved. It is your right. You defended those rights and earned those rights. There is a difference between taking advatage of your rights and taking advantage of the system.

AATW!!

Awww shucks Skyshark! Thanks, I will.

-John

[david1833]

John grab one of those midgets and have a seat, you seem like your getting melon collie.


This is the way I look at it,,Your a Paratrooper, that makes you a brother which makes you family.
I don't need to know you name,or bio,or your military history. You don't have to tell me that your a
grumpy old man, I can see that for my self, but let's keep it in the family in a private forum.


I wasn't angry for myself at your post, normally I would have just questioned your sanity.
I had that same augument years ago and it opened an old wound.


While working on a job sight there was this guy that said he was a Veitnam Vet. This was like in the early 80's. People back then didn't know much about the military. He would tell the guys stories of his time in country. Alot of times I would trip him up if he strayed into 11B territory,but he still knew alot more about Vietnam than I did, so I was never sure if he was there or not. One day
I was at break with a couple guys and he walked up and started to talk, I said something that pissed him off, The guys on the job new that I had been in the military, so he starts talking that trash, if you've never been in combat you're not a veteran. This went back and forth a few minutes, he was trying to get the other guys on his side. I told the guys, I'll tell you some true stories and you decide.


While I was in the field in Germany I watch two troopers exit a C 141 and fall to there death.
I was a short timer and part of the advance party. I was in a jeep with some other guys next to the DZ pulling security. We were so close that we heard one trooper screaming all the way down.


My question is this, Did those troopers die in a foreign land while serving there country?
That settled it for my guys. I told a few more stories but you get the jest.


The part I didn't tell them was the effect that story had on me.


We watched them hit the ground and there bodies bounce back up. Later I talked with our medic
who was one of the first there, he said one of them was alive for a few minutes, and that the other
guys face was like jello. Later around dusk we had a service on a little knoll, where they put a temp cross. The scene was like something you see in the movies, the sun was almost set,it had begun to drizzel and seeing every one standing around that little knoll. It is one of the saddest things I have ever seen. I truly felt that I had lost two brothers. I think that is why it has stay with me all these years.

That's why I was pissed, I won't tell you I'm sorry, because what you did was wrong, but this
is where it ends. We are brother's and your Grumpy Old Contentious Senile Ass needs to move on with
with the rest of us. That felt good.

[JoBa]

David, I'm old, I can take a vent anytime, been doing it for years. However, I do not believe I "did" anything wrong. I said something wrong, then I apologized for it. I took it even a step further, and explained how I am using you guys as a sounding board. I do this for the rare times I go out in public, so I don't come off as being completely nuts, but rather a little nuts, or perhaps a little eccentric, if you will.

Having a place where you can feel out your thinking or just being able to unload is handier than hell.

I had a guy streamer in on the next pass while I was unhooking my harness. Actually three streamers in that same pass. It was in a peanut patch down in the Carolinas somewhere.

The entire time I was in, it was the only time I had seen any streamers. Anyway, I watched as this guy came down, heading almost right at me. He was screaming "Mama" over and over as he came down. If a footlocker had been on the DZ under him, he would not have made it. His reserve popped open at almost the same instant he hit the ground. He was about ten feet away from me. I walked over to see if he was dead, he wasn't. He was laying on his back, ghost white, but obviously fine, his hands were moving around and such.

He was an E-6 Staff Sgt. I was E-5 Buck. So we are looking at each other and I say, loud enough for the troops running toward us to hear....MAMA?.. From then on out, he was "Sgt. Mama". Fucker seemed to dislike me for some reason or another after that, or at least it felt that way whenever I saw him.

The other two streamers I saw go down into a clump of trees on the far side of the DZ. I knew both those guys were dead meat, but found out later that they were fine. Both scratched up pretty good going through the branches, one of them had a broken leg.

The trees had snagged both their chutes and acted like big springs. It was not a good day for dying, I guess.

Anyway, feel free to unload on me anytime you feel a need. Like you say, we are brothers.

-John

[david1833]

David, I'm old, I can take a vent anytime, been doing it for years. However, I do not believe I "did" anything wrong. I said something wrong, then I apologized for it. I took it even a step further, and explained how I am using you guys as a sounding board. I do this for the rare times I go out in public, so I don't come off as being completely nuts, but rather a little nuts, or perhaps a little eccentric, if you will.

Having a place where you can feel out your thinking or just being able to unload is handier than hell.

I had a guy streamer in on the next pass while I was unhooking my harness. Actually three streamers in that same pass. It was in a peanut patch down in the Carolinas somewhere.

The entire time I was in, it was the only time I had seen any streamers. Anyway, I watched as this guy came down, heading almost right at me. He was screaming "Mama" over and over as he came down. If a footlocker had been on the DZ under him, he would not have made it. His reserve popped open at almost the same instant he hit the ground. He was about ten feet away from me. I walked over to see if he was dead, he wasn't. He was laying on his back, ghost white, but obviously fine, his hands were moving around and such.

He was an E-6 Staff Sgt. I was E-5 Buck. So we are looking at each other and I say, loud enough for the troops running toward us to hear....MAMA?.. From then on out, he was "Sgt. Mama". Fucker seemed to dislike me for some reason or another after that, or at least it felt that way whenever I saw him.

The other two streamers I saw go down into a clump of trees on the far side of the DZ. I knew both those guys were dead meat, but found out later that they were fine. Both scratched up pretty good going through the branches, one of them had a broken leg.

The trees had snagged both their chutes and acted like big springs. It was not a good day for dying, I guess.

Anyway, feel free to unload on me anytime you feel a need. Like you say, we are brothers.

-John

Eccentric will do. Welcome to FUBAR your venting is more than welcome.Attachment 17139

[Grouchy Hippo]

I have said many times how I feel about the service of you younger vets. Yes, I have seen the elephant; but I was not on Omaha Beach. Though Dak To was bad enough for me. each of us faces what God puts before him to face. I thank you guys because while you were standing on that wall be it in Germany, Korea, North Carolina, or Iraq I was able to raise my family in peace and security. Now my children are raising their families.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the service you have done and some still do for me and mine.

[david1833]

I would like to end my thoughts on this, by sharing what I learned about Combat, and what it meant to me. To this day it still holds true to my thinking.


First, for all my training I didn't know squat about Combat,nor could I.


Combat is an exclusive,private club with the only requirement, that you have been in Combat.


That there is no training for Combat, (they can only train and prepare you for Combat.)


That only members of this club have the credentials to discuss and pass judgement.





From that day forward it changed the way I would talk to someone who's been in Combat.
I now know the only thing I'm qualified to do is listen.

[IEDmagnet]

Insightful, but the asshole that actually looks down on people who never got the chance to apply what they knew, is the asshole that sat on a FOB for 365 days without seeing more than pictures of the enemy.

[Grouchy Hippo]

"Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another."
– Vietnam Veterans of America motto

[zuluzerosix]

david 1833 and joba need to get a room.

Just kidding.

I is my humble opinion that the COld War Vet and the Combat Vet are one in the same. They are both VETS and each deserve the same benefits.

[Gato Rojo]

I have said many times how I feel about the service of you younger vets. Yes, I have seen the elephant; but I was not on Omaha Beach. Though Dak To was bad enough for me. each of us faces what God puts before him to face. I thank you guys because while you were standing on that wall be it in Germany, Korea, North Carolina, or Iraq I was able to raise my family in peace and security. Now my children are raising their families.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the service you have done and some still do for me and mine.

That's a two-way street, Brother Hippo. Thanks for saying it. Rep, brother!