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Veteran’s Opinion

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Let’s start with the fact, I am a Veteran. I have been a patient of the Veteran’s medical system for the last 15 years after my legs went bad.

Okay this is where things can get a bit confusing. The 1st time I became a part of the Veteran’s Medical System was after an honorable discharge in 1985. I enlisted in the VA Medical System because was the only medical insurance I could afford while I tried to go to school. This lasted until I took a job at the VA Hospital and worked there for almost 6 years. During those 6 years I had ‘private’ medical insurance and as an employee I had to seek my care in the civilian world. Eventually I was medically laid off because of my legs going bad. Then my insurance began rejecting treatments and procedures. That is when I returned to the VA medical system.

So as you can see I am quite familiar with both VA medical system and ‘private medicine.’ as both patient and employee. So you see I can honestly compare the 2 system.

With that said and as Ed Shultz says ‘Let’s get to work.’

The years I worked at the Denver VA Hospital it taught me that the hospital was working at capacity. There was a time we had more patients then we had beds. Often this was the result of what we called ‘dumps’. A dump is when one of the for profit hospital discovers that one of their patients is indigent or if patients insurance had reached its capacity for the year and were not going to pay anything more. If the patient is a veteran they would move that patient to a local VA Hospital.

I remember when I was assigned to a surgical intensive care unit a veteran was rolled in attached to every portable life support there was. His paperwork showed he was a ‘dump’.

Then came the budget cuts. Thanks to the republican cuts we had to close 2 wards and a medical intensive care unit. Those now unused patient rooms were turned into offices no one use and a st0ore room with nothing in it.
Then came a rare moment of sanity in which congress recognized PTSD and Agent Orange as real medical conditions. Doubling the patient load.

Now thanks to 2 useless manufactured wars the VA Patient load is quadrupling. These Veterans are seeking care with traumas and injuries that in World War II meant death.

Last year republicans cut another 29 billion from Veteran’s budget. The sequestration budget cut another 10% was cut from the VA Budget. During the Bush/Cheney years $60 billion was cut from the VA budget. Good old super smart Paul Ryan fixed it so veterans will not be getting a cost of living raise for 3 years. Hell, He has made it clear he wants to cut all disability payments to Vets and to everybody else getting help for that matter. As part of his war on wasteful social spending.

So what I don’t get is why republicans are uptight about doctor’s being forced to see 20 or more patients in day and not being able to give their patients the time they need. Plus patients waiting several months or more for visits to specialty doctors or their primary doctor.

Anyway it seems to me strange that republicans are upset because Vets are slipping through the cracks and dying.
Well that’s my rant.

Next week back to Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy Chapter 7

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Once again, I am a paralegal not a lawyer. So my articles are in no way to be considered legal advice they are legal information only. Let us not forget when a lawyer or a paralegal becomes involved your problem becomes an ISSUE.

To repeat myself, bankruptcy isn’t as bad as republicans and corporations want you to think, Just because you have a bankruptcy Discharge your life nor your financial life are not going to end, Honest. All you are doing is telling the people you owe

“I ain’t got it and I can’t get it! So back off and leave me alone!”

You see the goal of all bankruptcies is Discharge. A Chapter 7 Discharge is when the Bankruptcy Trustee (Judge) says you no longer owe the money and or debts listed in your bankruptcy.

SIDENOTE: After Discharge you will have to be careful. You see There is a catch 22. You see according to Federal Law once you get your Discharge debt collectors are no longer allowed to come after you but there are bad debt collectors who will still come after you and if they can get you to pay so much as $1 it become legal to go after you again. I will get into how deal with these greedy idiots in later articles.

So getting back to after Discharge. Within 30days of getting your Discharge you will be able to get a credit cards. There will be Secured and unsecured credit cards offers. Secured credit cards require that you deposit money into a savings account. The amount you deposit in that credit card company’s savings account will be your credit limit. Six months after Discharge you will be able to buy a new car. If you want to buy a new house and use FHA loan, bummers that means you will have to wait a whole 4 years to get your new house.

SIDE-NOTE: This isn’t legal advice, just my personal opinion. After you get your discharge get a secured card that reports to the credit bureau. It will take some looking but they are out there. Warning, most secured credit cards companies report to nobody.

Now, no employer federal or private can fire you for filing for bankruptcy. You can get fired for other reasons but not for bankruptcy.

Chapter 7 bankruptcy Discharge does not mean you cannot file for unemployment benefits or that your payments are going to stop. This also includes social security or any other benefits you might be entitled to. At least not right now with the crazy republicans in power that will change.

The Discharge itself will only stay visible in your records for only 7 years.

If you are worried about the corporations and people listed in your bankruptcy they will get to deduct what you owe them from their taxes. The only thing they will lose is the interest they get to charge you while you struggle to pay off the debt.

So isn’t bankruptcy just going to destroy your life, like crazy republicans want you to think, or is it a chance to start the game over like it was always meant to be. You decide not the crazy republicans.

Next week I’ll talk about a few bad things concerning bankruptcy and the mechanics of how it works.

Debtors Prison An American Carol

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All right, five months ago it is Christmas time. As usual, there was a Christmas Carol movie is playing on a number of different cable stations. I think my three favorite are Bill Murray’s Scrooge, Vanessa Williams’ a Diva’s Christmas Carol and Patrick Steward`s, A Christmas Carol. I think Mr. Steward’s came closest to what Charles Dickens wanted to say. In each movie the main plot was pretty much the same, old greedy Ebenezer Scrooge or a Scrooge type character who refuses to part with a single coin and was out to squeeze every last possible coin from poor souls no matter how or why they got into debt. It did not matter what damage or suffering his greed caused. All that mattered was putting that shiny coin into his pocket.
With that in mind, one of his favorite things to do in getting that coin, in the book, was to buy the debt of others have the unfortunate debtor arrested and jailed as a debt dodge. It didn’t matter if they were employed trying to pay or not. Debt was an actual crime in the 18th and 19th centuries. With his victim in jail, in jail without a trail or due process, Ebenezer would seize and sell their homes, furniture anything with the remotest monetary value, turning the debtors ill parents, wives and children out to suffer in the streets. You know in the real world of the 19th century single and or widowed women with children just as often wound up in debtor’s prison as men did. Debtor’s children and wives were often sent to workhouses and orphanages. Places that were too often a half a step from hell. That is if they weren’t just dumped on the streets after their house was seized.
That would be a scary world to live in wouldn’t it. Thank the Lord we don’t live in such times, right? After all it only happens in fiction and history books, right? I mean such a thing could happen not in today’s America, right?
Wrong Virginia! It is very real! And it could very well happen to you!
Just ask the Minnesota woman, who went to jail over a $250 owed for a credit card she didn’t know she had. Or The Illinois breast cancer survivor who was jailed over a $280 medical bill the hospital told her she didn’t owe. There was a woman sent to jail over a $60 phone bill owed by her husband dead 10 years. Let’s not forget the Kansas City guy who went to jail for $1000 he owed a furniture store after making payment arrangements. This last January a judge sentenced a man in Kenny Illinois to an ‘indefinite jail term’ over $300 he owed a lumber yard.
This doesn’t include to poor souls sent to jail because they didn’t have the money or a job to pay a fine. Only to discover that their $60 fine after 90 days spent in jail is now $6000. After all someone has to pay for the prison, prison guards’, food and uniforms.
After all didn’t one bund ant say “If you were a good person and a favorite of God you would have been born rich?”

Chapter. 7 Bankruptcy

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Here we are once again. So as before I am a paralegal, I am not a lawyer. My articles are in no way intended to be, to be taken as, mistaken for legal advice. This is legal information only to help you ask the best questions so you can get the best help from your lawyer. Let’s not forget that when a lawyer of a paralegal becomes involved your problem becomes an ISSUE.

All right you are thinking about filing for bankruptcy. 1st thing 1st, contrary to what crazy republican’s would like you to think bankruptcy is not a bad thing. It is not going to destroy your life, it doesn’t mean you are a failure, or that you’re scammer trying to dodge your debt. All a chapter 7 bankruptcy does to restart you financial life. Kind of like asking for a ‘do over’ when you mess up playing a game.

As for your creditors, all you are doing is using the courts to tell them, “I am sorry I haven’t got it and I can’t get it. So back off.”

Now a bankruptcy is supposed to stay on your credit records for no more than 7 years. The story if you file for and are granted a bankruptcy you will be prevented from getting any credit or loans for 7 years. Plus when you do start getting credit again you will have to pay a much higher interest rate.

That is no longer true.

Will it is somewhat true. When you file your 1st bankruptcy form often called the ‘petition’ you will be unable to get any form of credit or loan until get your bankruptcy ‘Discharge’.
SIDE-NOTE: Don’t panic though. If something bad happens and you need to borrow money you have way to deal with it. You will have to get permission from the trustee though.
However not even 30 days after your ‘Discharge’ you will start receiving credit card offers. Everything from the loan shark offers:
These guys will offer high credit limits with very high interest rates. You miss a payment date with these guys by so much as an hour your interest rates will double sometimes triple. Miss a 2nd one and you could be looking at debtor’s prison.
SIDE-NOTE: Thanks to the crazy republicans and growing privatized prison system here the United States debtors prisons have become a a very real and serious threat in over 24 states. Just ask the breast cancer survivor in Illinois who went to jail 5 days after getting home from the hospital. She was arrested and jailed for a $260 hospital bill. A bill the hospital told her she did not owe. It had cost her father a $1500 to get her out. $260 for the bill she didn’t owe, $600 in legal fees, and $740 for the food she ate, for her Dad and lawyer to be processed in to see her. The rest paid for her stay at the Bar Hotel.

Next week I will talk about what debts are covered by a Chapter 7