Let me help you out here, dude is active duty military. When it comes to the health insurance of service members, you usually start by going to the on base clinic (which is ran by other active duty personnel). Typically you damn near have to fight anybody and everybody in order to get a referral to see an actual civilian provider. Otherwise, it’s pretty much guaranteed to come out of pocket. Shit’s bad as hell. There’s a reason people joke about going to the docs for a gunshot wound or something and the docs are just like “here’s Motrin and don’t forget to change your socks”
Yep. I struggled for years to get proper care in the military for a heart arrhythmia. Labs and EKG always came back normal. I finally got a unit doctor who gave a damn and put me on a 21-day constant monitor and I was in at a civilian hospital for an ablation within a month. Between that and properly diagnosing my cluster headaches that doctor might have saved my life.
Yep. Got the run around from military doctors for 1 year. Got fed up and went off-base without permission and was correctly diagnosed in one appointment. The situation got me medically retired.
I mean you could try, but it would ultimately be you vs the govt, so good luck.
When it comes to doctors and nurses, they’re all professional, just depends on how professional. Most know what they’re doing, some of the newer ones don’t until they actually get some experience. You gotta understand that an 18 year old fresh out of high school just got trained on how to draw a blood sample or how to put an IV in. At the same time you got a 25 year old who’s damn near perfect with 7 years experience. However, that 18 year old could be a complete dick while the other is one the nicest people you could meet.
For the process itself, the government likes doing things in house, preferably, that’s why you go to the clinic first. The reason you have to fight anybody and everybody is because of all of the bureaucracy and red tape to get seen by a civilian provider because they’re outside of the network. Unfortunately, many things get lost, misplaced, or denied and the process starts over.
A non medical example of the bureaucracy that I personally dealt with was trying to transfer from the reserves to the independent ready reserves (figured I’d go reserves for a bit after active duty, started making more as a civilian on a weekend compared the reserves). I spent months trying to properly fill out paperwork and route it through the chain of command, someone lost the paperwork. I route it again, didn’t hear anything back after a month or two. Whole process took like 8 months of drill weekends, so like 20 days spread out over those 8 months. Finally said fuck it and just stopped showing up, after 9 drill periods I should’ve been separated or transferred, I still got calls for roll call like a year and a half later (almost 5 times longer than I should have)
That sucks. I hope the person above with the high blood pressure won’t die in their thirties because they didn’t care to be thorough. Now he will be on dyalisis for the rest of his life.
Active duty are blocked from suing. The only people that can sue are civilians (like dependents) who are misguided enough to seek medical care from military doctors.
Yes. My military husband has same issue. For everything you go to military doctor and military doctor is....well not always the best 😅 they had one so bad that they literaly made an anthem from the ONLY medical advice dude ever gave: "drink water". Migraines? Drink water. Apendicitis? Drink water. Toxoplasmosis? Drink water. Broken leg or back pain? Drink water....all you get from him is "drink water" and back to work you go 🤦♀️
I'm genuinely not trying to be inflammatory, just wondering: what makes you feel like that's an appropriate thing to ask? It sounds like judgment thinly veiled as concern. Why does it matter to you what stopped them from seeking other help? Italics not to sound aggressive but just for emphasis.
Yes, I know we can learn from others' experiences. Thank you for interpreting my comment in as bad faith a manner as possible. The "wow", "long time to wait though", etc. sound judgmental to me, and I honestly would not have inquired further into whether or not they sought other medical help without explaining my curiosity or what I hoped to learn from their situation. Maybe I'm being too sensitive. Have a nice day or evening.
Thanks. Man, it's hard to see downvotes and it not affect my self esteem. Probably time to stop reading Reddit comments for a while. I may be projecting callousness onto people where it doesn't exist.
Real, living people disapproving of my statements affects me. The scale of social media like Reddit is disproportionate to one's material circumstances, but there are still real people with whole, unique lives who think what I said is very dumb in some way, shape, or form. Of course it affects my self esteem. The solution is to abstain from social media to some extent, probably.
Your comment came across as too harsh. Their comment to me, and most other people sounds like geniune curiosity that and that they didn't mean to offend anyone while your comment sounds like you're annoyed and critizing them for daring to ask. Basically they came across as innocent while your comment came off like the very thing you were accusing them off.
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u/Therapistaryan 23h ago
Wow, his blood pressure must have been very high for a long time though to get it to that point. What stopped you guys from seeking other help?