This is probably more likely than you think. I have Tricare (my husband is military) and they will ration out my prescriptions for my thyroid. My doctor usually puts in three refills for me at a time. Tricare will not fill my refill until the last bottle is almost out. If I lose my prescription I have to call my doctor to put in a new script instead of just going to pick up a refill.
Please if anyone is going to tell me how ungrateful I am for having "free" healthcare keep it to yourself. Unless you have dealt with the military healthcare system you will not understand how frustrating it is.
I feel your pain.
I grew up in a military family and my parents are still in the military system as retirees (age 76 and 73).
They still live in NoVa just to be close to military medical care.
I like to think as the military health care system as a microcosm of what socialized medical care will be like.
You get care, it takes a lot of time and it may not always be in a timely fashion- you will do a lot of waiting.
Case in point: in May 2000, the doctors knew my mother desperately needed a hip replacement- but the earliest they could get her scheduled was the the first Tuesday of
September. (This was before the Iraq war so it was not a case of the system being flooded with wounded heroes needing attention.)
She was in alternately in agony and out of it from the pain meds all summer long and being on crutches for 3 months exacerbated her shoulder to the point of needing THAT replaced too once her hip healed.
And because they waited so long to replace it, the state of her joint was so deteriorated and damaged that there was very little bone to screw the prosthesis into, so she was in the hospital (Malcom Grow at Andrews) for 3 weeks, and was not allowed to put weight on the leg until after
Christmas when x-rays showed that the bone growth could support her weight.
Dad was diagnosed with a "growth" on his kidney last May.
The doctor is now convinced it's malignant, and now that it's
October they are finally going to do more tests and take action.
But that's only because he's been really sick and throwing up pretty much since August and bouncing in and out of the E.R. at DeWitt (I mean Ft. Belvoir Community Hospital) for weeks now.
My parents' neighbors called me two weeks ago to tell me what they see happening with my folks because...
They are concerned that my parents are receiving sub-par medical care.
Calls that doctors are supposed to return within 3 days (Um, my doctor returns calls the same day) go un-responded to for 5 days or more, but everyone is doing their best. Bureaucracies are by nature inefficient and somewhat uncaring, even if they are made up of people who would characterize themselves as caring people. It's really easy for people to slip between the cracks when you're just a number in an electronic file.
I have to say that in the 25 years since I married I have not waited more than 5 minutes to see any non-military doctor for a scheduled appointment- something I would never have believed growing up in the military health care system.
But in my experience, that is the norm.
My dad was Navy. I remember my mom constantly fighting with Tricare over the dumbest things. Thank your husband for his service. I may not deal with Tricare, but I understand what you go through.
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