This subject is one I could write about in several post and plan to do several more outside of this thankful series. Any one who knows our family’s personal story will understand why we are so thankful for the healthcare we have as a military family.
As a family with special needs, healthcare is very important for us, and there are lots of “parts” and decisions for us. For most military families, the first decision is Tricare Prime or Select. That decision is made by us because of all the working parts. We are so thankful to be Tricare Prime. We are thankful to have almost all our specialist doctors in the same place as our primary care doctors, at a military treatment facility. This has been a blessing for us because when we were first told about the diagnosis of our children, we were surrounded by the same doctors we were familiar with, and knew our story.
We have SEVERAL hours of therapy a week for both of our children. We are thankful that we continue to go to a private office and there is never a concern if the insurance is going to be accepted. We have never received a bill for any payment to be made for any of the therapies that my children have. When my oldest was first diagnosed with autism, before we ever had any thought of a serious condition like Muscular Dystrophy. I remember researching all that I could, and the common consensus is therapy, therapy, and more therapy. But also with all those therapies, most of the research mentions the cost of these therapies, and that many families do not have access to these therapies because of insurance and healthcare. This has never been an issue with us and that is because of our healthcare of this military life.
When we learned of the muscular dystrophy in our oldest and further tests needed to be ran for myself and our youngest son, the costly tests were done without any issue from insurance. When those tests revealed that I also had the same gene mutation, and we should look further into our extended family, we learned how other healthcare plans handle these situations as my family members dealt with the obstacles just to have a doctor order the tests. This is why we are thankful that within the military treatment facility, we sat in a room with several disciplines of doctors and each one saying what they needed and it all happened. Not once did I have to “prove necessity” like my family did just for a lab test. I am so thankful for this military life and the benefits of our healthcare.
I am not saying that I don’t have moments where I am ready to lose my mind when trying to call someone at Tricare and make sure that a referral is in correctly, or to change a referral due to a move or something. But I deal with those few headaches, because I know there are very similar situations in other healthcare systems, and remember what we have to be thankful for of what we do have.
