VA benefits, must have had my head in the sand.

[oramar]

My husband was visiting a good freind at the VA hospital. He brought home some literature he picked up while he was there. When my husband got out of the Marines in 1968 any veteran could get care at the VA. It was always comforting to me to know that if he couldn't work and didn't have insurance he at least he could get health care there. Some where along the line congress passed laws so restrictive that there is no way he could qualify for care now. Yes, if he lost his job and his insurence and had a catastrophic illness we would eventually fall into the income group that would qualify him. But that would be after we burned thru most out savings and were staring dow the barrel of going bankrupt, probably would be losing our home to boot. Geeze, when did this happen, how did I miss it, where were the Veterns associations when this was all going down? How did the VFW ever allow this? If the income allowance I am looking at are correct you have to be close to destitute to qualify, like $28,000 for a family of four is the cut off. Of couse they take massive medical expenses into consideration but the idea to me was use the VA to avoid having massive medical expenses in the first place. I hope I am misunderstanding please somebody tell me I am misunderstanding.

[jones0651]

Please tell your husband to reapply.

The new regulations went into effect on June 15, 2009 and enable the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to relax income restrictions on enrollment for health benefits. While this new provision does not remove consideration of income, it does increase income thresholds. You may be eligible for enrollment under this new provision.

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

Personally as a VA nurse I would like to see the laws changed to allow all veterans to use their medicare and opt into the VA at age 65.

[sleepy_time]

In theory the VA is suppose to be used for SERVICE CONNECTED disabilites, not for day to day problems. However, I do know people who use it for non service connected disability all the time and are not on the verge of bankruptcy or in risk of losing their home.