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 Vallarta Living | Veteran Affairs | January 2007 
Will S.S.A. Provide Medical Benefits in Mexico?
 David Lord - PVNN
| | Different sizes of prostetic limbs rest on a work bench in the Prosthetics Lab of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. Since the start of the Iraq war in March 2003, Walter Reed has treated 5,437 soldiers from "Operation Iraqi Freedom." (AFP/Jim Watson) |
Veterans Benefits in Mexico do exist and equal Social Security benefits here are equally deserving. I will host an exploratory research commission by visiting graduate students of the L.B.J. School of Public Affairs, University of Texas: Alex Gunter, Marinna Zolezzi, Michelle LaLonde and the project manager, P.H.D. David Warner.
We will tour medical facilities here in the Puerto Vallarta area that currently provide medical coverage to U.S. Veterans. I see this as another step in providing care to the U.S. retired community here in Mexico.
The Veterans Administration pays claims at local care providers, so why doesn't the Social Security Administration? Certainly the tax payer/citizens of America deserve the same benefits received by America's Veterans when it comes to health care outside America.
My company, American Services, will be hosting seminars in the Puerto Vallarta area over the next year to gather registered support of retired U.S. residents living full time here in Mexico or those spending several months here each year. Watch for the dates and location to be announced.
Higher Medicare Payments - An estimated 1.65 million seniors will be subject to higher Medicare Part B premiums in 2007, and for many, the higher cost will be due to a one-time increase in their income in 2005. The premium increase is due to Medicare means testing, which will begin being implemented for the first time on January 1, 2007.
As a result, seniors who had an atypical increase to their income in 2005 - due to the sale of a home or cashing in an IRA, for example - may not only have to pay taxes on that income, but will also be subject to higher Medicare Part B premiums, which cover doctors' visits, tests and outpatient hospital care. Some seniors could have to pay as much as 83 percent more for those services in 2007 than they did in 2006.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) is anticipating a flood of complaints following the implementation of these changes and is estimating that of the 1.65 million people affected, about 20 percent - or 377,000 - will have questions about means testing and the higher costs, and 10 percent of those will disagree with the decisions made and ask for a review.
Because means testing was not announced until 2006, seniors making financial decisions in 2005 were never given the time or opportunity to plan for their retirement in the context of the changing rules. That inability to plan will likely affect a large number of seniors in the years to come.
In October, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that for the first time since Medicare was created 41 years ago, the Part B premium would be "means tested," meaning seniors with incomes of $80,000 per year or higher will pay more for services than lower-income seniors. It also introduced a scale of premiums which goes up as income rises.
The federal government has set up a process of screening individual income tax returns each year before deciding on Part B premium charges - which will continue to impact more seniors in the future.
For example, the cost to seniors in 2007 is based on information contained in income tax returns filed for 2005, which the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) shares with the SSA, and premium charges for 2008 will be based.
The American Legion will have its monthly meeting at Steve's Bar on Basillio Badillo on the 3rd Wednesday of January at 3 pm. All 2007 memberships cards are to be distributed. A discussion of Department Executive Meeting being held in Guatemala, March 22nd 2007, will be on the agenda. All post 14 members please attend and guest are welcome.
NAVY LEAGUE and TOYS for TOTS
I have been a member of the Navy League for six years, and each year participate in the distribution of Toys for Tots. I now include guest from the U.S. and Canada to help distribute toys out to remote areas outside of Puerto Vallarta. I strongly recommend this program, as it the best in Vallarta for rewarding you back with memories that will last the entire year. Anyone can join the Navy League and support the community.
VETERAN'S WITH PTSD AT HIGH RISK FOR HEART DISEASE
The link between PTSD and coronary heart disease has long been suspected, but Laura Kubzansky, PhD, of the Harvard School of Public Health care, and colleagues, contend that their study appears to be the first to demonstrate a prospective association.
The findings came from a prospective analysis of 1,946 men (ages 21 to 80) enrolled in the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study. The investigators reported in the January issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
This pattern suggests that individuals with more severe PTSD are not simply prone to reporting greater chest pain or other physical symptoms, but may well be at higher risk of developing coronary heart disease, Dr. Kubzansky said. "It is striking," she added, "that the results were maintained after controlling for depressive symptoms and were similar with two different measures of PTSD symptoms."
Veterans that experience chest pain may have coverage under the insurance of the VA Foreign Medical Program, even if the service connected disability is not directly associated with the current adjudicated disability, result of PTSD, and therefore be secondary to the compensated disease entitles medical insurance coverage right here in Mexico, which will reimburse the cost of treatment on income tax returns filed for 2006.
 David Lord served in Vietnam as combat Marine for 1st Battalion 26th Marines, during which time he was severely wounded. He received the Purple Heart and the Presidential Unit Citation for his actions during the war in Vietnam. In Mexico, David now represents all Veterans south of the U.S. border all the way to Panama, before the V.A. and the Board of Veterans Appeals. David Lord provides service to Veterans at no fee. Veterans are welcome to drop in and discuss claims/benefits to which they are entitled by law at his office located at Bayside Properties, 160 Francisca Rodriguez, tel.: 223-4424, call him at home 299-5367, on his cell: 044 (322) 205-1323, or email him at mophmx@@yahoo.com or david.lord@yahoo.com.
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