February 1st, 2005 7:49 PM
From: aaronb
Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 10:42 PM
To: soldiers@michaelmoore.com
Subject: army con artist
Mr. Moore,
I would like to start by saying that I think what you are doing for the
"troops" is probably the most supportive thing any one human being could do
during this troubled time. I would like to tell you my story, and I hope
that it can help other soldiers in my position.
I am a specialist in the US Army, I have served four years on active duty,
and I am separating from the service later this month. Earlier this year my
wife and I had a baby girl. Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with cystic
fibrosis, which is a genetic disease which affects the lungs. Her life
expectancy is about 30 years old. When she was born she required surgery
which kept her in the hospital for about a month. As you can probably
imagine, this was quite expensive. I wasn't worried about paying for it
because I assumed military insurance (TRICARE) would cover it. I went along
with that assumption for the next few months, but about 2 weeks before I was
scheduled to ETS, I made a routine trip to the tricare office at the base
hospital. When I arrived there and showed them an outstanding bill from the
hospital where my daughter had the surgery, which showed an outstanding
balance of 127,000 dollars, I was informed that that bill must be paid by me
personally because I was required to pay 20% of any medical bill from any
hospital or clinic not in the military system. When I asked the clerk what
my options were for payment, she informed me that I either pay the bill in
full, or reenlist and the bill would be paid for by the army. I couldn't
believe what I was hearing, so I left the office without saying another
word, went home, and called the 1 800 number for tricare. The representative
assured me that the clerks statements were entirely false and that my
insurance policy had a catastrophic cap of 1000 dollars. While I have no
proof, I believe that the clerk from the office at the hospital (who was a
civilian) was receiving some type of payment to try and con soldiers with
exceptional family members into reenlisting. I am considering obtaining
legal counsel on this matter, but I doubt I have a case. I just wanted to
write this to make sure it never happens to anyone else. PLEASE PLEASE
PLEASE, if you are given this story DO NOT REENLIST! Contact the tricare
hotline before doing anything based on what you are told. I hope that this
has not happened to anyone else, but I fear that is not true.
Thank you for your help,
A soldier for peace
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