(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. “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. “It’s hard to understand why we’re not taking care of guys like Erik whose injuries are clearly related to their service. They deserve the best care of anybody,” said Dr. William Obremskey, an Air Force veteran and surgeon at Vanderbilt Orthopaedics in Nashville, Tennessee.
“For him to be responsible for $3,000, I think, is a little ridiculous or is uncalled for, particularly in this situation.”
His mother, Robin Roberts, put it more succinctly: “Why should any soldier pay one penny of a medical bill from injuries that occurred while they were fighting in a war? That’s what really frustrates me.” The Department of Veterans Affairs has now decided to pay his bill, but only after prodding from a U.S. senator who got involved after CNN brought it to his attention. He retired from the Army in October 2007, because of his war injuries, and enrolled in college last fall at Youngstown State University, majoring in finance and minoring in economics.
But in December, he says, a golf ball-sized lump appeared on his wounded leg. He says he went to a Veterans Affairs hospital and was told not to worry about it.
A few days later, he says, he went to the emergency room after the lump flared up more. A doctor there, he says, told him that the leg was badly infected and that it might have to be amputated. His leg was saved. The $3,000 billed to Roberts wasn’t for the surgery itself. It’s a portion of the bill for six weeks of daily antibiotics to prevent the infection from coming back. His private insurance plan picked up the majority of the $90,000 in costs.
Roberts has been administering the drugs himself — up to seven IVs a day, with a nurse coming to his home once a week to check on him. At one point, his mom says, the insurance company suggested the war veteran should be put in a nursing home to receive the round-the-clock antibiotics.
“Now why would you want to put an injured soldier who is 25 years old in a nursing home to get IVs?” Robin Roberts said. “He said, ‘Send me home and teach me to do it myself.’ “
How can you blame the VA??? This is how medical billing in US works, and has for some time. Its why Americans overwhelmingly want reform.
It was 10 years ago now that I went in for an appy, and in the emergency room the insurance company declined to pay because it was elective surgery. Then for a year after I had to go back and forth with insurance company because they didnt want to pay for my surgery.
Yeah, it was elective, I didn’t want to die. LOL.
So once Obama gets all the work done of getting everyone on an insurance policy we still have to regulate the hell out of the insurance companies because they don’t want to pay for life saving treatments.
It would have been easier if the Rushtards had just let Clinton move the country to single payer. I bet it would have been less expensive in the long run as well.
Cue the “this is what privatized medicine looks like!” comments.
Of course, you can have privatized medicine while the federal gov’t pays for all the medical expenses of vets. These are not incompatible features.
Greg look at Canada and England they have socialized medicine and it sucks but you think it will work here because?
have you ever seen a single govt controlled program be cost effective and work properly look at the VA they are socialized medicine for our troops and they suck out loud.
How stupid do you have to be to want to go to a form of medical care that has proven time and time again to be horrible and then trust a govt who cant even figure out how to control them selves but your going to give your health care to the fools
Stay away from VA hospitals, stay far away. They operate on politics not medicine. My Dad was a surgeon and said as much.
No Doctor worth a darn would practice there if they had a choice.
The Army could spend a modest sum to provide a general and surgical lifetime medical insurance scheme, with a private hospital group, for all active and retired service personnel and their immediate families. This would be an incentive for servicemen to continue service and also to attract new recruits.
They get tax-free money in Iraq, so they should pay their fair share.
I do not care who is to blame, this is not the way to treat our veterans.
Jesus, we have trained these guys to be killers and now know that their new enemy lives in DC.
The socialized medicine sucks big time, but letting the profit driven private health care run the show is just CRIMINAL.
#7 SparkOne
>>…and now know that their new enemy lives in DC.
Politicians have always been self-serving and the enemy of the people, but for some reason many simply refuse to see the truth standing before them. As you say this is no way to treat veterans and the fact that this is even an issue shines a spotlight on the scum that resides in Washington.
It’s time to grab the torches and pitchforks and set things right.
Let’s do the Republican thing and blame Obama while pretending that those eight years of the Bush Jr. administration never existed.
The Rustards you need to blame for this case are Obama and the Rustards he put in place tring to save a buck at G.I. expense. They have since backed down. It won’t happen again until the next time. Ya just have to watch them.
joanPT
You seem to have a problem with making a profit.
Assuming you have a job, how much do you make in a year?
How much do you pay in necessary annual expenses?
If you have anything left over, give it to someone else. It would be criminal to make a profit.
#3, Paul
Greg look at Canada and England they have socialized medicine and it sucks but you think it will work here because?
Paul, you are pretty ignorant of facts. That seems to be the standard operating procedure with the right wing nuts.
Canadians like their health insurance, warts and all. In fact, 91% prefer the Canadian health care system to the American style.
have you ever seen a single govt controlled program be cost effective and work properly look at the VA they are socialized medicine for our troops and they suck out loud.
Sure. The VA is a great example, when it run by Clinton, Bush Sr. , Reagan, and all that came before. It was only under Bush Jr that the wheels fell off the VA. Amtrack was well run, until Bush appointees ruined it. The BLM did a commendable job, until the Bush Administration decided to interfere. FEMA was an extremely well run organization until it became a dumping ground for incompetent political bums during the Bush years.
And the list is extensive, with that same over riding failure.
#11, doewll
The Rustards you need to blame for this case are Obama and the Rustards he put in place tring to save a buck at G.I. expense. They have since backed down. It won’t happen again until the next time. Ya just have to watch them.
You really should read the article before shooting your wad. This happened back in December. Oh, guess what? Bush was the President. It was Bush that was trying to save money on the backs of the milirary veterans.
It was fixed on Obama’s watch, ya fucking right wing nut moran. Obama showed he cares about the veterans, Bush never did unless it was a photo-op.
The VA has been poorly run for decades. My stepfather was a career Army officer, so to my stepbrother you should have seen the crapola they had to go through to get things taken care of…
If that wasn’t bad enough, when my stepfather died, my mother was put through hell to get him buried.
And all this was under Clinton watch.
So those of you who keep wanting to point fingers at one administration or one political group, you’re talking out your asses (again). I’ve seen the VA in action(or inaction) with my own eyes.
Look no one asked him to be a mercenary.
That is the risk you take when you CHOOSE to be a soldier. He wasn’t conscripted.
Cursor_
#16, BigBoy,
You don’t provide any details except to say the VA is crap. That makes it pretty hard to refute anything. Everyone I have ever talked to has said how the VA provided great service until Bush started shutting down clinics and hospitals and denying service.
#17, Cursor
Look no one asked him to be a mercenary.
He wasn’t a mercenary. He was a soldier in the United States Army. And yes, WE asked him to join. And yes, WE told him we would take care of him if he was ever injured. And yes, WE asked him to risk his life in Iraq. And yes, he deserves our support. And no, I don’t think we should have been in Iraq.
#12 BillM
I decided to bite…
Well, I have nothing against making a profit. Just not with lives. What happens if you are a self employed American with a heart condition? You’re screwed, that’s what. Even if you make a decent, above average, income. And what happens if you are out of work with some kind of industrial disease?
Private Health, based on Insurance policies only works if you are working for others, preferably, a large company, and you don’t have cronical conditions (in witch case you can’t find a good job…).
Anyone thinking the government will do a better job at deciding who is worthy of what treatment is sadly mistaken. You can sue insurance companies and public pressure tends to keep them mostly in line. However, that won’t happen if the govt. takes control. You’ll get what they say and that will be the end of it. No one in this country is denied needed medical treatment. Try going to the emergency room sometime, it will often be half full of illegal immigrants and people with no insurance. That is one of the main reasons health care is so expensive, you’re paying for all the ones who don’t pay. It wasn’t very long ago you either paid out of your own pocket or you did without. Our system right now isn’t perfect, but it certainly seems to do a pretty good job for the most part.
#17 & 20
We have a voluntary armed force. Not a conscripted one.
NO ONE asked him. He chose to go.
Bully for him.
But don’t expect a government that rationed his munitions, exposed him to possible biological agents, told his fellow soldiers they were pussies and to buck up when they had depression and battle fatigue, gave them insufficient armour and provisions; that they will take care of you.
Didn’t history show you from the post civil war to Desert Storm show how they take care of you?
Oh that’s right we’re in the US, we are taught WHAT to think, not HOW to.
Cursor_
#23, Cursor,
We have a voluntary armed force. Not a conscripted one.
Very true. If he had of been conscripted then WE wouldn’t have asked him, WE would have told him to join.
Strange . . . when I was in the military we were given a promise, by the Federal Government, of free and full medical benefits for life, with no strings attached – no income qualification, no nothing. That was part of the deal period. It is interesting how our country has flat out broken the contract with the veterans – and is getting away with it. This isn’t a hand out, but payment in return for my service and putting my life on the line. While I hope I never need VA medical, it would have been nice to know I had something to fall back on if absolutely necessary. The veteran in this story earned the right to this treatment. Instead he is being pimped by a lying government and ungrateful people.