When I first spoke with Navy vet Gary Rinsem he was facing a death sentence due to religious zealotry, the sort of thing one associates with Saudi Arabia or Iran, but it was happening right here in America, at the Phoenix, Arizona VA. By the next day, he had a new lease on life thanks to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. It was nothing short of miraculous in his eyes, but what he went through is not an isolated problem, and that larger problem very much remains.
Rinsem, who is wheelchair bound, suffers from the rapid-onset form of Wegener's granulomatosis (aka granulomatosis with polyangiitis), an auto-immune disease. “ Without healthcare it will kill me,” Rinsem told me. “Healthcare keeps it controlled. It is never in remission, and I will die if Wegener's asserts itself and I don't have healthcare.” But that’s exactly what he was facing—the prospect of at least three months without an appointment.
First diagnosed in 2011, Rinsem turned to the VA in March 2015, when he was unable to continue working. He had five short-term care providers in the next two years, who were “too incompetent for description, but none of them shoved their religion on me,” he explained. In July 17, he was assigned to Dr. Fred Cheron, the first VA doctor who did anything for him. “I had no choice.” Rinsem said in a followup email. “I had to tolerate him pushing his God and Jesus on me or give up on all healthcare.”
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