(CNN) -- Erik Roberts, an Army sergeant who was wounded in Iraq, underwent his 13th surgery recently to save his right leg from amputation. Imagine his shock when he got a bill for $3,000 for his treatment.
Army Sgt. Erik Roberts was badly wounded in Iraq with two comrades in April 2006.
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"I just thought it was bull---- that I'm getting billed for being wounded in Iraq doing my job. I always put the mission first, and now that I was wounded in Iraq, they're sending me bills," he said.
"I put my life on the line and I was wounded in combat, and I came back and they're not going to take care of my medical bills?"
It's a level of outrage shared by his mother, as well as the doctor who performed the surgery.
I hope that the universal healthcare program will provide care for veterans who are back in the USA and all of us, without billing. Duplicating what is already here, seems to be a waste of healthcare dollars. Doctors, nurses, corpersons, etc. can work along with all the personnel and not be distant from "state of the art" practise at home.
Since gang warfare in the streets (and on TV) has given civilian ED personnel experience handling some of the trauma seen on the battleground, it may be appropriate to incorporate VA hospitals into the entire healthcare system. We could sure use their personnel. I've met spectacular professionals at VA hospitals, who could raise some standards around here. (Not saluting and calling everyone "ma'am" and "sir" necessarily, but the mutual respect is laudable in the service.)
It may have been necessary after the world wars, to provide veterans with separate specialized care. There was an effort then, to spare civilians the lurid details of conditions in war. Now, I think that's ridiculous, and with some inservice training that would bring everyone up to speed to care for war injuries, and also allow earlier reacclimation to life here, it's realistic.
There are many things done at VA hospitals that could be adapted here, like ambulatory patients having communal dining, etc. The high acuity levels in hospitals here would make that a smaller group, but it would be good for morale and earlier recovery, to have opportunities for socialization.
President Obama indicated that mental and physical illness need to be handled with the same criteria for treatment. PTSD treatment would be a good way to start doing that.
Lamazeteacher, thanks for this post. I don't have experience with VA healthcare, but the points you make about veteran care dovetailing well with the public healthcare system are really interesting. I'd be curious to hear more about this perspective and to what extent it may have been implemented/pursued already. NCLEX time for me is quickly approaching and haven't been reading anything but NCLEX books and allnurses.com, so I apologize if my comment sounds silly!
Your comment is no more silly than mine, and I've been giving a lot of thought to combining healthcare systems. There might be a lot of resistance to the idea, as many people think sacrificing what's always been done/sacred cows, is tantamount to criminal.......
It would benefit civilians and veterans to be more familiar with each other's conditions. Then me may hopefully be less enthusiastic about war.
Lamazeteacher you have come up with a great idea. I have often thought that having serving Military medics/corpsmen working part of their work week in a civilian hospital would provide a great experience that cannot be taught. I knew very little about chronic illness, peadiatrics or gerontology until becoming a nurse, yet if the situation arose as a medic I was expected to treat conditions/populations that by training I was unfamiliar with.
We don't have a VA system in Oz but I can see the benefits you propose.
Army Sgt. Erik Roberts was badly wounded in Iraq with two comrades in April 2006. 
stellina615
146 Posts
Lamazeteacher, thanks for this post. I don't have experience with VA healthcare, but the points you make about veteran care dovetailing well with the public healthcare system are really interesting. I'd be curious to hear more about this perspective and to what extent it may have been implemented/pursued already. NCLEX time for me is quickly approaching and haven't been reading anything but NCLEX books and allnurses.com, so I apologize if my comment sounds silly!