Letters to the editor for Jan. 3

Easy solution for road usage fee

The Dec. 26 editorial from the board of The Columbian of Vancouver, Wash., does not see the simplest solution to measuring road usage.

When I lived in California some years ago, I had auto insurance with AAA. Each year at renewal, they took an odometer reading of my car. It would be easy enough for auto dealers or gas stations/garages to take an annual reading (any place that works on vehicles), then sign a state certificate, certifying to reading.

No GPS or other tracking, to invade our privacy.

Vet struggles with health care

I am here to let those that believe that only people without insurance have problems receiving medical care that that is false.

I served 20 years in the Army and one would assume that I would have it made. Wrong! When I turned 65 and was on Medicare, they dropped me from my family practice clinic because I now had Medicare. It didn’t seem to enter their heads that I had been on Medicare for 13 years as I became disabled from my PTSD.

With some fighting I was able to get back on my team under something called Tricare Plus. This is something that doesn’t really exist but can be used to get retirees out of the system. It’s been a constant battle since and I have not been able to get a face-to-face with my primary care physician in almost two years.

Medicare is a whole other set of battles. Just try to find a doctor outside of an HMO that wants to accept new Medicare patients.

At this point I tried to be seen at the VA, but since I had not received medical care there for years, I had to get a doctor assigned. It has now been two months and I am finally being processed to get a doctor on Jan. 3.

I signed up for Kaiser Permanente during the open enrollment period but Jan. 1, I still haven’t seen a doctor. I have had a couple surgeries, but they have been kind of going around the system.

I forgot to mention my journey to optometry. I needed an exam so I was able to get a telephone consult with my primary care physician. My consultation was put into Madigan and it was turned over to Tricare. To my surprise, Tricare referred me to Yelm Optical. They called me to tell me that since neither Medicare nor Tricare for Life paid for optometry, that I was going to pay for the exam and glasses. Since Tricare referred me out, I figured they would pay. Nope! Yelm Optical was nice enough to suggest VA. VA took very good care of me.

Be very careful when you think you sold your soul to be taken care of in your old age since it isn’t true when dealing with the US government.