Obama's plan to fund the bail-out: Take it from the veterans

So we've sent men and women into combat for over 5 years, into a war that was unfounded; allowed them to go into harm's way for nothing but greed and power; and now we're going to fund greedy financial institution bailouts with the money we committed to provide them for healthcare for their wounds obtained in service.

news.yahoo.com...

I keep wondering how sick and immoral this country's government can get, and I keep being shown I have to pull the bar back further.

I'm running out of ground, and this is disgusting.

This is nothing new. I am a 100% service connected disabled veteran,and I know that for at least the last 8 years, I have been asked if I have private insurance on numerous occasions when being treated at V.A. hospitals..... Maybe some other service connected veterans will read this also and substantiate this.

reply to post by hypervigilant



my Primary Care VA Doctor, has asked me several time over the past 6 or so years that same question...

I pay for Medicare & hospital coverage on top of my VA coverage...

The reason being that the VA hospital, some 90 miles away, has so many
on waiting lists that some procedures are better to get locally with private
Doctors
or Doctors who still take Medicare (there are likely many who will drop out of accepting Medicare rates of payment)


I just cannot get my head wrapped around this idea of 'outsourcing'
VA services.. perhaps the VA is being offshored or outsourced out of existence, considering that the military is/has been All-Volunteer
since the 'Draft' ceased.



[edit on 16-3-2009 by St Udio]

This is one of the many reasons I did not vote for Obama.
The govt should be taking care of the military veterans any and every which way they can, its EVIL to not provide the veterans with such essentials that were created in the first place by the very same people who sent our boys to fight in their wars. I am disgusted in our president, he needs to get his Harvard head out of his Harvard ass and do something for our men and women who bleed for the very things that he preaches about. HONOR. Where is his Honor?

As I posted here.

------

"Obama Vows to Boost Veterans Care" --Friday, October 5, 2007

"As president, I won't stand for hundreds of thousands of veterans waiting for benefits," he told a crowd of about 300 people at a community college in northern Iowa.
...

Obama said it's not enough to make a speech on Veteran's Day or lay a wreath on Memorial Day.

"When a veteran is denied health care, we're all dishonored," he said. "When 400,000 veterans are stuck on a waiting list for claims, we need a new sense of urgency in this country."

He said too many veterans slip through the cracks, and he would institute a zero tolerance policy for veteran homelessness.

"There should be no homeless veterans," he said. "We'll stand with veterans in their hour of need just as they have stood up for us."

Liar.

'nough said.


[edit on 16-3-2009 by loam]

I have been recollecting on how long and in what ways Veterans have been losing in dealing with the V.A. for medical benefits. I remember that Bush 41 initiated co payment on prescriptions when he took office. The wait time to get an appointment tripled during Bush 43.... We got the first travel pay increase since Clinton in January this year since Obama was inaugurated..... My experience has been that veterans are treated better under a Democratic administration. How about you other Veterans, haven't any of you older guys noticed the same? Oh it was Jimmy Carter that started the Vietnam Vet Centers during the first part of his administration.

The government has been screwing the Veteran for as long as they've been creating them.

www.eyewitnesstohistory.com...

We must find our voice and USE it!!

reply to post by hypervigilant


If I new you was a fellow Military member I wouldn't have gone at you so hard earlier.



Still doesn't change my mind though.

The vets may get treated a little better by the Dems, but not by much. They are extremely bad for the active military though.

I guess they figure that there are more veterns then there are active duty, so they try and please them.

I do recall them asking me for insurance at one time. but that's been years. If you other vets need help filing claims and help, my I recommend......

Hadit

I had been a member for years, not only do they help you to fill out claims and telling you what forms to fill out (don't worry, they are on our side), they tell their horror stories with V.A., But don't get me wrong, some V.A. Center are nice and some I would not take my dog to.

I would say that alot of Vets are gonna be pissed, Especially those that live near a VA Center and moved there for that purpose.

Ugh...

The link provided by the OP is pure disinformation.

The budget is being dramatically increased, to the tune of 25 billion dollars, and coverage is set to expand to cover half a million veterans who currently do not qualify.

Link

These attacks on the private insurance reimbursement aspect are disingenuous, at best. The notion that the veterans will foot the bill is simply false. Currently, those veterans who carry private insurance are paying premiums and receiving no coverage - the insurers are enjoying a higher profit margin on soldiers than civlians, because the VA will pay for a number of service-related conditions.

As I understand it, this measure was engineered to combat that trend, by getting some money back from the insurers.

People are going off the wall - but only because they're being lied to and told that veterans will be receiving bills for treatment for combat-related conditions!

Where the hell were you people when the veterans were getting screwed by the VA? Like the system was so freakin' wonderful before Obama showed up.

www.webcommentary.com...

It took the VA over one year to finally adjudicate that claim, and it was adjudicated only because my Congresswoman's office intervened on my behalf. It took the VA over one year to award me six months (I believe) of temporary 100% from the date of my surgery. Thus, all throughout my period of convalescence - i.e., the time I was most in need - my shoulder was rated at 30%. And guess what having a 30% rating meant? I had to pay for my prescriptions. In fact, the first thing I got in the mail from the VA after my shoulder fusion surgery was a bill for medication.

I bring this up because, due to a convergence of events, I was able to witness first-hand a paradox in the VA's treatment of people. As far as I know, I am the only one who has noticed this, and this is a "Mark original" suggestion. If somebody else has noticed this already, then I am sorry.

There I was, as a disabled veteran, recovering from a service-connected surgery, and since the VA kept my rating at 30%, the VA was billing me for medication. My mother, on the other hand, never served a single day in the military. After she divorced my biological father, she re-married my step-dad, who has had a 100% rating from the VA - albeit, I was, and am, far more incapacitated than he is. Since my mother, who never spent a single day in the military, was married to my step-dad, she didn't have to pay anything for her medication! It was all covered through the VA, under ChampVA. Plus, she had her healthcare covered under the same, and as a dependent of a disabled veteran, she could see practitioners outside of the VA.

The notion that some combat-related conditions could be subsidized by private health insurance already carried by veterans is what gets y'all up in arms?

Wow...

And here I thought maybe the current lack of care, or the poor quality of care, or the arbitrary defintions of disability, or the wait times, or the commutes required for so many veterans, would be higher on your list of gripes.

It's the outrage du jour - too bad it doesn't ring true...

The reason it doesn't ring true? Because the people who might be affected by it are insurance companies, and they have a bigger influence on the MSM than any veterans I know...

[edit on 17-3-2009 by WyrdeOne]

reply to post by WyrdeOne


Wyred...

First and foremost, shove your personal accusations up your backside. I don't care what your position is on this board, don't you ever accuse me of disinformation again. I've done my dead level best in the 6 years I've been on this board to handle any side of politics as fairly as I canl For that reason I've been attacked by both, so you are way off base with what you said about me. This topic is not about politics; it's about policy.

Second, you've got an uphill battle to prove the negative press on this plan is coming strictly from the insurance companies. Read the article linked...

The Obama administration recently revealed a plan to require private insurance carriers to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in such cases.

"It became apparent during our discussion today that the President intends to move forward with this unreasonable plan," said Commander David K. Rehbein of The American Legion. "He says he is looking to generate $540-million by this method, but refused to hear arguments about the moral and government-avowed obligations that would be compromised by it."

...unless Commander Rehbein is in the pockets of the insurance companies, it doesn't look like an insurance lobbyist saying these things.

Where do you get off accusing me of not caring about VA benefits in the past just because I don't agree with this plan? It's not an all or nothing issue here. We don't need to be impacting the veteran's private insurance policy with treatment that VA provides them. That's not right. This isn't politics...it's policy; one I don't agree with it.

[edit on 3-17-2009 by Valhall]

This practice started going on when Reagan was in office and it was fine then. . Most Veterans with service connected disabilities can't pass a physical and insurance companies don't cover pre existing conditions. Only veterans with 100% disability rating is covered for non service connected conditions by the V.A..... This really isn't even an issue that warrants attention, unless you think that the insurance companies are in need of another reason to avoid fulfilling their obligation to cover those that pay their premiums....

Originally posted by hypervigilant
This practice started going on when Reagan was in office and it was fine then. . Most Veterans with service connected disabilities can't pass a physical and insurance companies don't cover pre existing conditions. Only veterans with 100% disability rating is covered for non service connected conditions by the V.A..... This really isn't even an issue that warrants attention, unless you think that the insurance companies are in need of another reason to avoid fulfilling their obligation to cover those that pay their premiums....

This issue is not "non service connected conditions". Read the article.

The leader of the nation's largest veterans organization says he is "deeply disappointed and concerned" after a meeting with President Obama today to discuss a proposal to force private insurance companies to pay for the treatment of military veterans who have suffered service-connected disabilities and injuries.

the force would most likely be to prevent them from excluding pre-existing conditions.

and again to clarify...

The Commander, clearly angered as he emerged from the session said, "This reimbursement plan would be inconsistent with the mandate ' to care for him who shall have borne the battle' given that the United States government sent members of the armed forces into harm's way, and not private insurance companies. I say again that The American Legion does not and will not support any plan that seeks to bill a veteran for treatment of a service connected disability at the very agency that was created to treat the unique need of America's veterans!"

[edit on 3-17-2009 by Valhall]

Hi,

Respectfully, lets drop the petty pot-shots shall we? Please.

Civility and decorum people....civility and decorum......

Sing it with me!!!

I know people can and do get passionate about this subject, but lets just stick to the facts and let them do the talking

Smile You know you want to

Yes I read it and I stated in an earlier post that I am a 100% service connected veteran veteran and I have had to fill out forms stating weather or not I have private insurance or asked if I do for years. Others can attest to the fact that this is something that has been in effect for years and is nothing new. What I am saying is a fact. I have been a disabled veteran for forty years and was at a V.A. just yesterday, I am very familiar with the system. I am even certified to do direct care as a volunteer.

Do insurance companies even cover injuries and conditions suffered during military training or caused in warfare while in the military?..... I sold hospitalisation policies when I was a lot younger, and seem to remember a disclaimer related to non payment for war injuries. I am not sure if that is right, it was a long time ago.

Originally posted by hypervigilant
Do insurance companies even cover injuries and conditions suffered during military training or caused in warfare while in the military?..... I sold hospitalisation policies when I was a lot younger, and seem to remember a disclaimer related to non payment for war injuries. I am not sure if that is right, it was a long time ago.

Probably not right now...but the proposal is to force them.

reply to post by Valhall


Edit: I've edited my initial statement - it wasn't my intent to say the OP herself was the source of the disinformation - it was the link provided with which I took issue. Sorry for the unintended insult.

The American Legion is an anachronistic embarassment. According to more than one source I've read, their ties to the far right wing and the KKK are well established and transparent.

It wasn't long ago that most Klan rallies across the country took place at American Legion outposts.

I think the root of the Commander's angst has nothing to do with the actual programs being discussed, and everything to do with the masthead Obama.

This is the problem we're facing right now, and it's the same exact problem we faced for 8 years of the Bush presidency. It doesn't matter what the man does - people hate him so much they go nuts whenever he opens his mouth. Obama is the anti-bush, the other side of the coin.

To say that he's in the pocket of the insurance lobby is unsupported - I can't back that claim up. What I can say, with some degree of certainty, is that the man responsible for making that statement is letting his personal politics interfere with his job as an advocate for veterans rights.

All this bad press stems from the Commander of the American Legion. Multiple news organizations took that and ran with it.

And yeah, I think this story is disinformation. It's being telephoned all over the place, getting more out of whack with reality at each step.

What started off as a question of whether private insurance companies could be made to reimburse the VA for services rendered has become a 'discussion' of whether or not Obama hates veterans and wants them to pay for their own care. It's ludicrous.

Here the president is taking a huge step forward in VA funding, requesting the largest dollar and percentage budget increase in the history of the organization, and people are jumping up and down and screaming foul! It's nonsense - look at the programs being sketched out, the assistance is huge compared to past years. The vets are going to get better healthcare than they ever have in the past.

I'm sure we both want the same thing. We want our veterans to be taken care of. They've sacrificed, they've bled, they've gone to Hell and come back - they deserve everything we can give them.

It would be a real shame, for that reason, if the budget gets watered down by people claiming to care about veterans benefits.

[edit on 17-3-2009 by WyrdeOne]

I've just learned that a number of other veteran's groups are upset about the proposal.

This news story: www.cnn.com...

So it's not just the American Legion - I was wrong.

This is completely disheartening in my opinion. This country has the duty and obligation to care for and treat our nations veterans. These brave men and women volunteered to be put in harms way to protect our way of life, our liberties, and our freedom. We owe them at least the guarantee that any and all injuries obtained during their service to this country be taken care of by our government.

To not do so is a slap in the face to every brave man and woman who through their service to this country has sustained injury.

Having said that, private insurance or medicaid would probably be best in cases of non combat illness. I am sure that it isn't taxpayers duty to pay for vets who have a cold or flu. It is our duty to make damn sure our veterans are cared for with any physical or mental illness or injury that is a direct result of their service to this nation.