You know, our military rarely ever questions itself while it lines the pockets of defense contractors, but when it comes to what they deem as the ambiguous timing of a health issue of one of their own, they'll talk themselves all the way around the world to justify denying care. My, how a leukemia diagnosis conveniently makes fiscal conservatives of them all of a sudden:
CADILLAC -- A man with leukemia is expected home from Texas this week after the Air Force discharged him without medical benefits, contending the disease predated the start of Airman Joseph Weston's military service.
The decision leaves the family unsure how it will pay medical costs that could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Air Force said in a statement it has decided to separate Weston "from service without disability compensation based on his entry on active duty in May 2008 with a pre-existing medical decision."
The article then goes on into the meat of whether it was a pre-existing condition, or not, but let's entertain the idea that the leukemia was so obviously a pre-existing condition. Well, he should have a single-payer system to fall back on, no?
The Air Force decision leaves JoAnn Weston and her husband, Jim, scrambling to find medical care for their son in West Michigan. With JoAnn's income as appointment coordinator in a dental office and Jim's as a supervisor in a die-casting plant, they said they do not have the financial resources to pay for his care.
Their hope is Medicaid will pick up the cost.
And, it always comes back to hope. Hope if a fickle and unreliable thing. Give us single payer, or give us death. But, when you think about it, we've been given death in abundance. So, I Can Haz Single Payer, Now?
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He just might qualify for Medicaid.
A guy in my daughter's graduating class (2001) was diagnosed with leukemia two years ago. He'd been living and working in Florida, began to be very tired and weak, and came home. A preliminary diagnosis was done, and he got the bad news. His friends held fundraisers, since he had no health insurance. His parents own a small grocery store near one of the lakes and aren't wealthy. But Medicaid did kick in for him. He went to the U-M hospital, worked with a fabulous doctor, and just last week, his mom told me that he's cancer-free. She also said that he has coverage until May.
Good luck to this person. Hope he's able to have the same happy ending.
How many billions does this country spend on "defense" each year? Shameful tactics by the Air Force.
the problem here is...
to me, the problem lies in the fact that had Weston taken a job with medical benefits in the private sector, there is a strong likelihood that he would not have "collapsed on the job" and not been diagnosed with leukemia until he was covered.
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It was the highly physically stressful conditions of basic training that lead to his collapse and diagnosis -- and now he can't get covered in a private sector job for the treatment required for his "pre-existing condition."
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IMHO, while its not possible to provide a confirmed diagnosis of leukemia from blood tests, absent evidence of some kind of medical problem in his blood he would not have exhibited the symptoms he did. (In other words, for him to collapse "on the way to sunday church service" 10 days after beginning basic training means that his blood work would have shown signs that indicated the potential that he was unfit for service.)
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In such cases, it should be the military's responsibility to do further testing before allowing enlistment and basic training, because the rigors of basic training can not merely reveal disease, it can aggravate it.
What problem?
Whether it was or wasn't pre-existing, no one should be able to fall through our system. If it was, in fact, pre-existing, there shouldn't even be a question about who will catch him when he falls. If it wasn't a pre-existing condition, or the Air Force can't prove that it was, they should help him.
I'm talking about the big picture, here. The only problem I see here is that this man would even have to question where he would be able to get health care from.
But, we've always been at war with Eastasia...