State’s VA system is better than you think
There has been a lot of talk about the VA and bad experiences. I am sure there have been some but not in our case.
My husband fell deathly ill July 2017 and was taken to the Alvin York hospital in Murfreesboro. He spent a week there. The proposal was that he be moved to hospice; I said, nothing doing. I would take care of him.
We brought him home and from that day to this, the VA has been a most wonderful blessing to us. We have had ambulances furnished, hospital visits, nurses, home health help, medicine, supplies, hearing and eye helps; the clinic at Eastgate is great. He is now able to sit up in a wheelchair.
I want to give glory to God, for it is his grace that has “brought us safe thus far,” but I must give credit to whom credit is due. Perhaps the Tennessee units of the VA are better than other states. The blessing is here; it always has been a better place to live because of our Bible foundations, which make better people.
I am grateful for the employees and medical personnel at VA and cannot praise them enough.
June Griffin, Dayton, Tenn.
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Danielle Mitchell will represent all of us
Make America “America” again.
Make America a place where character, ethics and honesty matter.
Make America a place where Congress is an independent, co-equal branch of government, as our Founding Fathers intended.
If you want to reject the voters-be-damned, cynical financial inevitability of whoever raises the most money automatically wins the election, or if you simply yearn for an ethical, grassroots candidate who will be accountable to all voters in East Tennessee, the well-connected and the not-so-well-connected, then vote for Dr. Danielle Mitchell for our 3rd Congressional District.
Dr. Mitchell serves our community daily from her family physician office in Hixson. She understands firsthand the dire need for affordable, accessible health care in East Tennessee.
Dr. Mitchell is big on solutions and low on ego. We elect Congress to represent us – the people of East Tennessee. Our current congressman represents a constituency of one – a billionaire in the White House. Isn’t America still a “government of the people, by the people, for the people”?
A vote for Dr. Danielle Mitchell for Congress is a vote for accessible, accountable government.
Lisa Shivers, Signal Mountain
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Tennessee failing to protect vulnerable
Soon, pre-existing conditions may disqualify a member of your family from getting health care. Again! Since 2014, insurance companies haven’t been able to deny coverage due to a prior medical condition.
But with Gov. Haslam’s blessing, the Tennessee attorney general has partnered with other Republican attorneys general and the Trump administration to take away this protection.
Some examples may include pregnancy, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, migraine, cancer and many others.
Individuals with these conditions would at least get charged a higher premium but could also have benefits carved out or be denied coverage altogether.
Currently, about one in five Tennessee adults (ages 18-64) are without health insurance.
And about one in three has a pre-existing health condition.
Tennessee already leads the nation in bankruptcies, and most are due to medical bills.
If more Tennesseans are denied coverage, the demand for Medicare for All will get even stronger. Fortunately, such an arrangement will save most taxpayers money compared to the current system. Although taxes will be higher, families will have no health insurance premiums, co-pays or deductibles.
Matthew Hine, M.D., Oak Ridge, Tenn.