Would You Take a Bullet Train from Anaheim to Las Vegas?... Brightline West

Disney Irish

Premium Member
When you provide shoddy information based on false assumptions and run with it as fact... yeah... I kinda can't argue with you. Have yourself a pleasant week.
I suspect the fact you haven’t provided any counter data to show I’m incorrect means you can’t find any, and that is the reason you “can’t argue”. I have no issue being wrong, so long as data is provided that counters any data I’ve provided and not just some ramblings about “wrong facts” or talk about “idiot citizens”. That just comes across as a “get off my lawn” argument.

So you have a good week too.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
What I have gleaned from this discussion (which I was almost sorry I started) is that, in the U.S.A, some poor people can get free medical transportation assuming 1) they qualify for Medicaid, 2) can jump through the hoops to get it, and 3) know about and figure out how to access those particular services, IF available in their area.

To be fair, I only knew to respond (which started this hilarious side-track) because I am officially registered with the VA system and once had a VA assigned doctor I would see. The VA hit me over the head with the "We Can Give You A Free Ride Anywhere!" stuff for years, and so when I did an 8 second Google search I found out... Yup, the poor folks on Medicaid get the same treatment. Free rides to and from any medical, dental, vision, mental health, pharmacy, hospital visit they want.

What really got things going was when @lazyboy97o asserted that this system of free transportation for patients of Medicaid, VA, or some segments of Medicare didn't exist. When in actuality they do in the USA, but apparently don't in other countries.

I'd bet two churros lazyboy97o doesn't qualify for VA care, and their free rides. Or else he'd have known better.

The vast middle is at the mercy of insurance companies and their constantly changing whims. Heaven help us.

I would still maintain the that vast Western World's middle-classes have an advantage over the very poor. They likely have at least one car, and if they live in a swanky and glassy downtown Vancouver BC highrise and don't have a car they can afford a $30 Uber ride to their doctor's office, or the hospital.

Or even better, the middle classes often have a social system that involves a friend or family member who own a car and can drive them to the hospital or care center if they are so sick that it goes beyond the Cold N' Flu Aisle at Target.
 

Parteecia

Well-Known Member
Or even better, the middle classes often have a social system that involves a friend or family member who own a car and can drive them to the hospital or care center if they are so sick that it goes beyond the Cold N' Flu Aisle at Target.
My friend groups are mostly childfree or the children have moved far away. Many are widowed. As we age and people's driving becomes more limited it gets surprisingly harder, just when we start needing more medical trips. Isolation is a real problem in this country.

I recently drove over 100 miles taking a working friend for a colonoscopy. She has a large circle of friends but no one else could do it. Like many of us, her family is older and more in need of care than able to help.
 
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Parteecia

Well-Known Member
I'd bet two churros lazyboy97o doesn't qualify for VA care, and their free rides. Or else he'd have known better.
My boyfriend was 9 years Air Force. When he got cancer in his 30s he didn't go to the VA because, in his words, he wanted to live.

When it returned in his 60s, he went to the VA and they told him he didn't qualify because he had other insurance?!

No rides were ever mentioned at any time.
 
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TP2000

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
My boyfriend was 9 years Air Force. When he got cancer in his 30s he didn't go to the VA because, in his words, he wanted to live.

When it returned in his 60s, he went to the VA and they told him he didn't qualify because he had other insurance?!

No rides were ever mentioned at any time.

That is sad, and yet the VA will try and take you (away) from your current insurance and/or doctor. Or at least the VA was doing that in the mid 2010's. Not sure what it's like now.

I fell for that trap over a decade ago as I aged toward official retirement demographics, and I had a pretty darn good VA doctor for a few years who had a very good sense of humor. But eventually I felt a little guilty after a few trips to the VA Hospital in Long Beach where there were a lot of men my age who clearly had lived a hard life, long after the Vietnam War ended and the world had moved on without them.

What this country, and its popular culture, did to Vietnam War veterans five decades ago is criminal. But that's another topic. :(

I'm still (Still!) on the VA's radar through basic government intel, and they have one of my current email addresses. I could return to them for treatment if things get less fortunate for me. I only knew that free rides for VA patients were a thing because of that darn mailing list they won't release me from!

https://www.va.gov/healthbenefits/vtp/
 

truecoat

Well-Known Member
SC, TN, TX,

GIF by Zack Kantor
 

Parteecia

Well-Known Member
That is sad, and yet the VA will try and take you (away) from your current insurance and/or doctor. Or at least the VA was doing that in the mid 2010's. Not sure what it's like now.

I fell for that trap over a decade ago as I aged toward official retirement demographics, and I had a pretty darn good VA doctor for a few years who had a very good sense of humor. But eventually I felt a little guilty after a few trips to the VA Hospital in Long Beach where there were a lot of men my age who clearly had lived a hard life, long after the Vietnam War ended and the world had moved on without them.

What this country, and its popular culture, did to Vietnam War veterans five decades ago is criminal. But that's another topic. :(

I'm still (Still!) on the VA's radar through basic government intel, and they have one of my current email addresses. I could return to them for treatment if things get less fortunate for me. I only knew that free rides for VA patients were a thing because of that darn mailing list they won't release me from!

https://www.va.gov/healthbenefits/vtp/
We must've been in bizarro world alternate universe. It was 2015, he was diagnosed just as he was laid off. The Long Beach VA said no while he was on COBRA. He ended up with a few months of Covered California after that before aging into Medicare.
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
We must've been in bizarro world alternate universe. It was 2015, he was diagnosed just as he was laid off. The Long Beach VA said no while he was on COBRA. He ended with a few months of Covered California after that before aging into Medicare.
No you weren't in bizarro world, this seems to be a common story with the VA, not the first time I've heard it. And I think its going to get worse as the current Administration looks to cut the VA completely and try to privatize it at a time when our Veterans can least afford it.
 

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