OPINION:
The democratic socialists’ promises about Medicare for All are just empty words. Neither they nor their naive supporters have a clue.
I know a thing or two about our free healthcare from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). I’ve been stuck in a never-ending nightmare for over 50 years ,dealing with a system already corrupted beyond comprehension by a bunch of soulless people.
I was forced out of my job in law enforcement due to preexisting war wounds received in Vietnam while serving in the Marine Corps.
I hurt my back during training and was sent to Vietnam in an unfit condition at the age of 18. My complaints of severe back pain were ignored even after I was wounded five times. When I didn’t relent, I was sent to Guam, where they found two ruptured discs in my lower back over a year later.
I was operated on stateside. One disc was removed and the other repaired, allowing me to become a law-enforcement officer until that repaired disc moved.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars spent five years fighting the VA , which blamed my job and never gave me any retirement money. The job blamed my war wounds.
The nightmare didn’t stop there after, even after I was given my 100% disability. I went to a VA clinic in extreme pain in 1987 when that repaired disc became unbearable, only to be sent home with a bottle of muscle relaxers. My leg became paralyzed for life in the parking lot.
To add insult to injury, I went to another VA hospital and was refused a biopsy on a bump on my numb leg, forcing me to go outside, where I learned that I had a rare and deadly cancer. I was operated on outside the VA and left permanently unable to bend my leg.
Not trusting the free medical treatment given to veterans, I just paid $1,995.00 out of my disability check for Medicare supplemental insurance. So much for free healthcare.
GREGORY J. TOPLIFF
Aiken, South Carolina
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