Tester's support helped family

Five years ago, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 NHL, caused by exposure from Agent Orange Spray while in SEA during Vietnam War. I appealed to the VA for help, but despite my desperate situation they said they set up an appointment three weeks from then to see if I financially qualified. My doctor said I needed treatment then, not when the VA got around to it. For the moment the treatment is successful but after fighting the VA for four years while they slow walked me hoping I’d die, I went to Sen. Jon Tester as he was always bragging about helping the troops. Two weeks after making that call to his aide I was awarded my pension and the check was in the mail. Now had the VA done what was obvious from the beginning, my wife (who found out she had colon cancer just as I went into remission) would not have had to go back to work six weeks after treatment ended and she was still bleeding and in pain. She did this to keep us from going under financially, but it was totally unnecessary had Helena not stonewalled me. Fortunately, even though she had a pre-existing condition (torn Achilles), she was finally allowed to buy insurance through the dreaded Obamacare which she purchased six months before her cancer diagnosis. She paid for it with an early draw on her social security and it paid every last cent of the bill.

My point is, Sen. Tester does support the troops 110%. He also supported ACA, a program that needed fixes admitted to by President Obama himself, but guaranteed top-notch care and no bills for our family because we took advantage of the program offered.

We refuse to support a Senate candidate that has tried to do away with preexisting condition protections in ACA and a congressional candidate that is on record saying he doesn’t believe we should be allowed to retire. His words were, Noah was 600 and he wasn’t collecting benefits. We paid for them Congressman, we paid for them.

Tom & Bette Thompson,

Thompson Falls