Healthcare for active duty military personnel needs improvement

When it comes to taking care of our service members, we have to do better.

Advertisement

I've been on both sides of receiving medical care on military installations. As a family member, I have had options that were much better than being seen in an Army medical facility. Don't get me wrong — I am incredibly fortunate and grateful for the healthcare that I am afforded. However, I can't help but notice how much better I have it as a family member than I did as an active duty soldier.

At the last location I lived, I had the option of choosing my own providers off-post. My active duty husband had no such luck. It always bothered me that I had the freedom to schedule my own appointments with the provider of my choosing and be seen usually within a couple of days, and my husband — who has been serving his country for more than 10 years — had to wait up to a month to be seen for specific issues that were potentially serious. Not only that, he had to navigate through "sick call" and wait for referrals to be pushed through.

One time he waited at a troop clinic for more than an hour before being told, "Oh, your provider isn't here today." He's also had a dentist cut her hand on instruments she was using and bleed into his mouth.

It's not a specific location that I have noticed is worse than the other. I recently spoke with a behavioral healthcare provider on-post here in Germany, and her attitude toward providing treatment to active duty personnel turned my stomach.

During the course of our conversation, she said, "You wouldn't believe the amount of soldiers I get in here wanting to be diagnosed with everything under the sun." As she said this, she rolled her eyes and took a sip of her protein shake. I filed an Interactive Customer Evaluation comment to express my concern over the encounter I had.