You nailed the paradox as well as Doc Daneeka nailed it for Yossarian.

 David,

I did actually attempt to rewrite the famous Catch 22 paragraph using the Agent Orange presumption, which turns out to be bogus for its stated purpose, however, the concept did not lend itself to the re-write. I was reminded however of Schroedinger’s Live/Dead Cat.  Essentially hitting the send button on the VA site to claim a hypertension disability is comparable to collapsing the wave function.  But with the VA and hypertension, the “disability cat” is almost always dead.  

My apologies to my readers out there in the science community who may percieve, with reason, that my “cat” analogy is imperfect or worse.  But I fall back on the use of the many versions of hyperbole, a known writers gimmick to get the point across. 

Paradox is an excellent use of the word, David.

Frankly, typical.

I am grateful that a defoliant was used to open fields of fire around the bases my father inhabited rather than have folks undetectable “right up to the wire”, regardless of some of the ill health effects to Dad.

However, that does not change the debt our country owes to those who served, including doing our best to treat any and all injuries and ill effects they received while in our service, especially those stemming from a function of their services provided.  That includes friendly fire, Agent Orange, et cetera.

This bait and switch is not out of the norm for Congress.  While everyone I have come into contact at the VA are stellar folks, that has not meant that structures put up by Congress to avoid fulfilling their/our side of the contract has been stellar as facilitated by the VA.  (Luckily, for my Dad, we have not had to deal with some of the craven among some VA hospital administrators.)

Anecdotal case in point:  Dad broke his arm near the shoulder.  No cast was feasible, only a sling.  Fair enough.  Further, at first, the break while crazed (such as in pottery) looked reasonably OK for a couple weeks.  However, it then rapidly started disintegrating as Dad’s body had a calcium issue.

The BAD / FRUSTRATING part was that his bone Doc prescribed a bone generator, which all the docs involved felt was the best / only chance for Dad’s body to repair the bone.  Tricare for life would have paid the paultry $700-$800 for the bone generator, except Dad was/is old enough for Medicare.  Even though Medicare serves as his “secondary” insurance, Tricare goes by Medicare standards wherever they are more restrictive than Tricare’s.  Medicare requires that a bone break exist for 90 days BEFORE a bone generator may be purchased and applied.  That is several (6+) weeks AFTER which the break would have “healed” in whatever condition it would be in, and on a path to amputating his left arm.

Dad lucked out, no thanks to his military retirement “guaranteeing” medical for life (after multiple wars and “police actions”), we found a food and supplement based method to boost his body’s failing ability to process calcium as a long shot that ... worked.

Another issue:  Tricare used to cover his dental.  While he was hospitalized, Tricare split that off to another government carrier but did not get Dad enrolled.  He has been paying his “covered” dental ever since and they will not allow enrollment outside a brief window regardless that his effective disenrollment was performed by them without his knowledge.

Tom,

When I received my commission in the Army in 1965,  Congress was already meddling in a system wherein retired military had care for life in military hospitals that you allude to.  Then space in these hospitals was declared “inadequate” but instead of making the military hospitals adequate, several pieces of legislation in the 50s and 60s started the “contracting out” of medical service for retirees with CHAMPUS and then Tricare.  Private health insurance corporations have now infiltrated the medical care for retired military as is happening with Medicare and its privatization under Medicare Advantage and ACO Reach.  It is apparent to all but the deliberately disinterested or unconscious that the US Government is absolutely committed to privatization of all health care in the US.  Democrats and Republicans are equally complicit in this wretched scam.   

Nothing privatized for Dad at the moment.  It’s all Grade-A Congressional Health Uncare.

You reminded me of another fun bit (Champus) with the medical for life promised to Dad and his dependents.  Our family retired to Anacortes in 1973, partially because NAS Whidbey was nearby and we could use Dad’s full medical, vision and dental benefits for him, medical for Mom and I until I would age out in college.

It did not work out that way, however, a few years later, like many other base and camp hospitals, Whidbey ceased taking dependents then retirees somewhere around 1980-1982.

We were directed to Champus.  However, Dad was not eligible for Champus because we BARELY lived within 40 or 42 (I forget which was the regulation distance) miles of the Naval Hospital.  We were less than a mile in side that radius at that.  While that was technically true “as the crow flies” the distance by road was actually farther.  Bottom line, Champus refused Dad because we lived too close to a hospital that would not provide any services.

Thus, Dad and Mom were out of pocket for all their medical, vision and dental until they aged out of Champus and into Tricare for Life and Medicare.