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Archiver > KERN > 1998-03 > 0890523768


From: Chet Swanson <>
Subject: Veterans Warning Scare is a Scare
Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 15:42:48 -0800


First let me partially quote the official Veterans Affairs (VA) press
release of March 11, 1998:

"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 11, 1998

VA Clarifies Rules For Health-Care Enrollment

Washington, D.C. -- In response to INCORRECT INFORMATION DISTRIBUTED BY
OTHERS ON THE INTERNET, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is
clarifying recent changes regarding veterans' eligibility for health care..."
[**my emphasis with the capital letters**]

Now, if I may also partially quote from the VA official web page:

"Veterans can apply for enrollment AT ANY TIME that they come to a VA
medical facility for care, even AFTER the trial enrollment period, which
ends on October 1, 1998..."

Try these two VA web page links for a little more information and several
more referrals.

http://www.va.gov/pubaff/enroll.htm
http://www.va.gov/pressrel/enroll98.htm

As usual with the Internet scare messages there is just enough truth in the
message to make it seem critically important. However, before you forward
messages such as this one you should take a few minutes to verify the
information. Some questions to ask yourself before you forward these scare
messages are; (1) Do I personally know who the person is who sent me this
message, (2) Does this message say something like please send to every one
you know, etc.

Based slightly on the truth, this message which is "flying" across the
Internet with a life of its own has now caused the VA to waste a lot of
your tax dollars to try to correct the misinformation which has been spread
around like so much fertilizer. Think about it for a moment. Let's says
that this message which came to the KERN genealogy list went to several
other lists at the same time. Let's be generous and say and say each list
has 50 subscribers, and lets just say it only went to 5 lists (this time).
That's 250 people who got this message. Now, lets say all but 25 of them
deleted it, but those 25 sent it out to 5 other lists with 50 subscribers
each. Now 6,250 are getting it on it's second time around, for a total of
6,500 people. Now if only 10% of the 6,250 pass it on......... Can you
see where I'm going with this? By a week from now everyone in the world on
the Internet would get this message, probably more than once.

Good hunting, let's stick to genealogy,

Chet
--
Chet Swanson
Eastmont Aviary; ABS (28S), WBS, & BS
Everett, WA
mailto:
http://www.premier1.net/~swanson/index.htm
"640K ought to be enough for anybody" Bill Gates 1981
(referring to computer RAM)
Copyright 1998, Chester Swanson, all rights reserved

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