Just Forget Seventy-Five

HAS HEALTHCARE RATIONING STARTED?

by Gunnery Sergeant John McClain, USMC, Retired, ©2012, blogging at Gulf1

(Oct. 23, 2012) — A note from a former U. S. Marine and Vietnam veteran  living in Danbury, Connecticut.

I am a 67-year-old former Marine and a Vietnam veteran.   And I say:  “Forget about living to age 75 in the USA!”

This morning at Danbury Hospital here in Connecticut, I was scheduled for a cardio-lite stress test.  This is a treadmill stress test where nuclear dye is injected into your bloodstream and you are put in a CAT scan or something similar in order to take a picture of your heart.  If all is good, the heart shows up red;   if there are blocked arteries anywhere, the heart shows up pink.   I have had three of these tests in the past twelve years due to blocked arteries discovered in 2000.  They use the test to determine if I need a “roto-rooter” or a bypass operation.

So, I arrived for my previously schedule appointment at the hospital at 8 a.m. this morning and in the process of checking in, the lady in the front desk said that my appointment has been canceled.   She made a call, spoke with someone, and then she handed me the phone.   It was a nurse in the Cardiology Department who said that my medical insurance carrier denied the procedure. I said, “It is a routine part of my heart maintenance program as ordered by my PCP and with approval from my cardiologist who is the head of Danbury Cardiology Department, which is right where I am standing right now.”  She went, “Yes, but our request was denied.”  So I said, “I have Medicare, so what is my backup insurance doing denying anything.”  Then the bombshell;. . .she said,  “It was the Medicare Board that denied the procedure.”

At that point, I turned to everyone behind me, and it was a long line, and I said to them “Well, you won’t have to wait too long today because my stress test procedure was just canceled by a Medicare Death Panel.  I am only 67 so can you imagine what is going to happen when we really get old?”  The entire waiting room and everyone there from patients to staff just went dead silent. Then, I turned to the front desk staff and told them, “I guess I will have to write a letter to the editor of the Danbury News Times and call my senators and congressman and let them know the Death Panels have already convened”.  Then I walked out.

By the time I got home the message machine was blinking.  My PCP had called and so did the hospital and guess what?  Medicare decided to approve my stress test procedure, and I should get back down to the hospital, and they would fit me in right away for the 3-hour procedure.  I called back and told them that I couldn’t make it, I was going fishing because I didn’t know how many more fishing trips I could get in before I went into cardiac arrest, but not to worry about me costing the government any money because I am a 30% disabled Army veteran due to Agent Orange poisoning which is what caused this heart problem to begin with, and I qualify to be buried for free in a plain pine box in the cheap graves section at any national cemetery.   I certainly don’t want to cost our government any money.  So, maybe we just won’t do the procedure anymore and we can use the money to redistribute it to all of the illegals to keep them alive so they can mow the lawns at the national cemeteries.

And so this note is for everyone to know that the Death Panel c*** has already started.   And if we don’t vote this guy and his criminal cronies out of office this November, then we should all expect to die younger and as completely broke paupers as the country goes further down to hell.

Feel free to distribute my note to anyone and make it your mission to not only make your vote count in November 2012 but on behalf of all of us, please also make an effort to help convince everyone to NOT vote for the present White House occupant or any of his cronies in the November 2012 election if they want to receive proper medical care and expect to live to age 75 or older!

As my own advice, I would add, don’t return any senator to the senate who is not absolutely outraged at this whole manner of ignoring our principled Standards of culture, and equally outraged at those Senators who have supported this, openly, without prompting.

As a Marine 90% disabled, and on quad weekly infusions for multiple sclerosis, and fifty-four, consider all those who have come after me, those who have served under the “COIN” Counter Insurgency strategy in Afghanistan.  The principle core of the doctrine adopted was based on the use of vehicles was deemed causing distrust, and after-math operations have been mandated, conducted by foot patrols.

Remember, all our lightweight, go-fast HMVV’s were “armored up” because they literally burned up when struck by IED’s, Improvised Explosive Devices.  They ceased to be fast, light-weight maneuverable and nimble, and became slow-moving targets.

We don’t lose HMVV’s much any more; patrolling is on foot, so the IED’s now only take out the lower half of a Soldier’s or Marine’s Body.  This is the embodiment of COIN today.  It does save vehicles!