Gall bladder removed here too. Went to the Doc last August thinking I needed something for indigestion. Nope, not the case. Within an hour I was enjoying a chopper flight to the suggested hospital. I had called the VA before I went to the local Doc but it wasn't enough or the proper procedure to receive VA coverage so Medicare was the primary insurance which paid most of it. There is a national program called Veteran's Aid that will help in such situations and they sure did in mine, but the VA itself refused everything. It's hard for me to believe that a helicopter ride costs $2,000 a minute, but it did.