Posted on Feb 8, 2014
Should we all start paying something for healthcare and/or prescriptions?
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I am playing a little bit of the devils advocate here, but I want to pose a serious question. As military member s we all know that military medical makes up a massive chunk of the DoD budget. Having said that do you think it's time that everyone starts paying a co-pay for visiting the doctor or for getting prescriptions.
Before you answer take this into consideration. Over the years how many of you have had yr Soldiers go to sick call, just to attempt to get quarters to stay out of work? Or how often are Soldiers abusing the post pharmacy because medical professionals will write them a script for many things they can buy at the px/commissary?
I understand there should be special circumstances I.e. Combat related injuries requiring appointments or medications, but in my opinion a lot of the costs could be driven down by requiring service members and retirees to pay something along the lines of a $5 co-pay for both appointments and medications. I think this would decrease abuse of the system and free up space for those that really need the care.
Thoughts?
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Posted 11 y ago
Responses: 7
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I don't know if it would actually save money. The reason I say this is that when I go to sick cal I don't see a Dr. I usually see a corpsman maybe a PA if I go back for a nagging injury. If I was paying for it I would want to see at least a PA for every visit and that would mean the Navy/Marine Corps would need to hire more PAs and Drs possibly leading to an increase in costs.
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SSG Genaro Negrete
I see what you're getting at here. Maybe the co-pay would apply to visits at specific clinics/times.
Our soldiers are supposed to be seen at the Battalion Aid Station during the duty day. Maybe the co-pay, for example, would apply to ER visits for themselves between the hours of 1700 through the next day at 0600 on work nights. If the pain isn't that bad, a $5 co-pay may help encourage that soldier to wait and be seen at the aid station the next day.
Our soldiers are supposed to be seen at the Battalion Aid Station during the duty day. Maybe the co-pay, for example, would apply to ER visits for themselves between the hours of 1700 through the next day at 0600 on work nights. If the pain isn't that bad, a $5 co-pay may help encourage that soldier to wait and be seen at the aid station the next day.
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The military has led the way in preventative medicine. Educating our soldiers and their families on appropriate access to medicine and utilization of care saves money. I have seen how nominal co-pay for accessing urgent and ER care decreases utilization and agree with it. That said, even OTC meds can be misused and I have no problem taking a few minutes discussing their use. I was never in favor of self-serve OTC Rx stations. Besides, catching things early and face to face encounters saves time and money. There will always be "high utilizers" and a few sham artists, but this is a leadership challenge. I would rather remove barriers to care at the lowest level, knowledge share, and use that interface to reinforce preventative care. Just my 2 cents.
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LTC (Join to see)
I agree but and i'm not in favor of OTC med station..i am in favor of a patient taking personal responsibility for themselves to a certain degree and that includes treating themselves with OTC meds. Anything can be misused but that shouldn't be a reason not to develop and utilize innovative methods for improving self-care....Patients deserve the education even if they aren't always receptive to it at first...i view this a removing barriers to care which is preferable to erecting them
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While first off, in a civilian world you wouldn't need a doctor's note to take a sick day. My base TMC and MTF no longer offer sick call and at best you are likely to get a same day appointment. So many of us are stuck going to work sick and yes, spreading it to everyone else in the office.
Secondly, the care at MTF needs to drastically increase before I would consider paying them a dime. I have dozens of appointments every year, just for Military doctors to tell me 1) they don't know what's wrong 2) they can't do anything for me or 3) well we have discussed nothing this visit but I want you to follow up with me in 1-3 months. Other than feeling like a trial and error guinea pig for medications, the medical 'treatment' I had recieved is minimal.
If you want to stop waste and abuse we need to start with the practices of our MTFs first. We need quality care, not our time wasted. I have been referred to specialists who take the appointment time to read why I'm there and then proceed to tell me that I never should have been sent there in the first place. Or in another instance, I was sent to a specialist who couldn't treat me due to the internal MTF policies.
My solution would be to make the MTFs competitive with civilian medical hospitals by allowing SMs a choice between the two.
Secondly, the care at MTF needs to drastically increase before I would consider paying them a dime. I have dozens of appointments every year, just for Military doctors to tell me 1) they don't know what's wrong 2) they can't do anything for me or 3) well we have discussed nothing this visit but I want you to follow up with me in 1-3 months. Other than feeling like a trial and error guinea pig for medications, the medical 'treatment' I had recieved is minimal.
If you want to stop waste and abuse we need to start with the practices of our MTFs first. We need quality care, not our time wasted. I have been referred to specialists who take the appointment time to read why I'm there and then proceed to tell me that I never should have been sent there in the first place. Or in another instance, I was sent to a specialist who couldn't treat me due to the internal MTF policies.
My solution would be to make the MTFs competitive with civilian medical hospitals by allowing SMs a choice between the two.
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Sgt Michael Baker
That is truly a sad state of affairs. I can only say that all of the veterans I know that have any ability to pay for insurance do so, regardless of whether or not they are supposedly entitled to free care by the VA. For me, this is another disgrace of us all to have let a system treat wounded vets and otherwise in such a manner, especially when wounds were received as a direct result of their having served this country?
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