Should we all start paying something for healthcare and/or prescriptions?

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 08 Feb 2014 00:50:48 -0500

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?

Response by MSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 8 at 2014 12:55 AM

MSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 08 Feb 2014 00:55:47 -0500

I for one wouldn't mind seeing a small co-pay for some routine care. It is way too easy to just go to the clinic for any little sniffle or pain and people abuse it. Not to mention the cases like you mentioned where people are going to sick call just to get on quarters and get out of work. I had some young airmen figure out that if you had diarrhea it was guaranteed at least 24 hour quarters without any real check on whether you were being honest. Until they saw the same guy 4-5 times in 2 months!

Response by LTC Paul Labrador made Feb 8 at 2014 4:36 PM

LTC Paul Labrador — Sat, 08 Feb 2014 16:36:01 -0500

Any soldier who comes to my ED during the duty day and is found to be a triage cat 4 or 5 (ie sick call type of complaints) I send immediately back to their sick call area/TMC....

Response by MSgt Owen Shockley made Feb 8 at 2014 11:29 PM

MSgt Owen Shockley — Sat, 08 Feb 2014 23:29:18 -0500

Let us not assume they do not need the care.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made May 21 at 2014 11:28 PM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 21 May 2014 23:28:24 -0400

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.

Response by SSgt Gregory Guina made May 21 at 2014 11:57 PM

SSgt Gregory Guina — Wed, 21 May 2014 23:57:41 -0400

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.

Response by MSgt Private RallyPoint Member made May 30 at 2014 12:07 PM

MSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 30 May 2014 12:07:29 -0400

I think medical services (prescriptions/doctors) should always be paid for by the government. It might take a big chunk of the DoD budget, but there are so many more areas that the budget could cut. For some SMs, it is a need to receive meds. For an injured SM, whether they have PTSD from a deployment or are recovering from a job related injury, making them pay for the doctor appointments, surgeries, and prescriptions would deter people from joining due to lack of care provided.

There might be those out there that uses medical for getting out of work, but a supervisor should be monitoring for trends when someone goes to sick call or medical. If there is a trend happening, then they need to be corrected and have disciplinary actions started.

Paying a co-pay isn't going to decrease the abuse of the system at all. If they have a problem or addiction to meds, a co-pay isn't going to deter them from getting it.

Response by SGT Kristin Wiley made Dec 2 at 2014 8:24 PM

SGT Kristin Wiley — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 20:24:24 -0500

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.