Vets Should Pay Their Own Medical Expenses!

A special thanks goes out to John Boitnott of Silicon Valley, California for alerting me to this one.

A news article on Yahoo News, entitled “The American Legion Strongly Opposed to President’s Plan to Charge Wounded Heroes for Treatment” (http://ow.ly/10Eb), read:

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

Commander David K. Rehbein of The American Legion is quoted as saying:

“It became apparent during our discussion today that the President intends to move forward with this unreasonable plan. He (the president) 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.”

The commander went on to say:

“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!”

You can go to the actual article to read more, however this ‘alleged move’ by President Obama does not surprise me in the least. I am compelled to stress this idea that this is not an anti-Obama thing, but rather it is a thing against the mindset of many who think that the Veteran and/or Military are a group of people not worthy of being properly compensated.

What is a Disabled Vet?

A Disabled Vet is “a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.” In other words, a Disabled Veteran is a person who entered the Military and sacrificed something of them while performing his or her duties as ordered by the U.S. Military or U.S. Government.

What makes the Disabled Vet anymore special than anyone else?

This is often a simple matter of opinion, but the Disabled Vet is a person who once served our country and it’s citizenry faithfully and honorably by protecting our rights and way of life against people wishing us harm from with out or with-in it’s borders. The Veteran gave something of him, or her, self for this country and it’s citizens… therefore it’s a debt of honor that we owe those disabled in the service of our country the medical care and compensation that he or she requires and ‘free of charge’. It was often not their fault that they received the disabilities that they suffer with on a daily basis, therefore due to the fact they received them while in the service of our country… we owe them just compensation.

Are only Veterans who are disabled in relationship to a war to be considered?

No, thousands of Vets have disabilities that are not directly, or indirectly, attributed to war; however they still received their disability ‘in the line of duty’ while acting under orders. Those non-wartime disabled vets are no less important than the wartime vets. We still owe them the same respect and debt of honor for their service connected disabilities.

Why is President Obama’s Plan unfair to the Disabled Vet?

The U.S. Government saw it fit to give the U.S. Military missions, whether those missions were Peacetime or Wartime Missions, and during the course of those missions the military member became disabled. The Disabled Veteran would most likely never suffer the disability they have acquired if it was not for this fact; therefore it’s the responsibility of the U.S. Government to properly take care of these people. It is not the Disabled Vet’s healthcare plan’s responsibility, it’s not the responsibility of the Disabled Vet to assume the cost of the care of their disability, nor is it up to the families of those who were Disabled in the line of duty to assume these costs…. It’s the responsibility of the Federal Government. Laws are in place which demands the citizen to live up to his or her responsibilities, therefore the U.S. Government ought to be held to a set of standards that are equal to (or higher) than what is expected of it’s citizenry.
According to the media the Obama plan will push off the government’s responsibility upon the Disabled Vet through the act of making Civilian Healthcare Insurance Companies assume the costs that are rightfully the responsibility of the government to pay. In turn many insurance companies will raise the rates the Disabled Vets pay for healthcare to make up the shortfall, also these companies will raise to a slighter degree the cost of healthcare to non-disabled vets because the health care companies ‘are losing too much money”.

When I lived in Las Vegas the health insurance company of the place I worked found out about my heart condition and wanted to raise the rates paid by the business and the employees 2 to 3 times the rate that we were currently being charged. This became a problem and I told the company that my heart condition was the responsibility of the VA and the health care insurance company was not responsible for such charges. I had to sign a waiver saying that the health care company would not be responsible for my heart condition and they still raised the rates by 50%.

This was during a time when the Veterans Administration did not require for me to give my health care insurance information to the VA so that they could try to charge the health care company for costs relating to my service-connected disability. Now stop and think how that situation would be if the law stated that the health care company I used had to pay for my ‘in the line of duty” disability. They easily could charge everyone 2 to 3 times the current rates simply because I chose to enter the U.S. Military and was ‘lucky enough’ to win the disability lottery. Instead of affordable health care being a possibility in the future, healthcare would worsen for everyone (especially the Disabled Vet).

So this plan, as reported by the media, is unfair to the Disabled Vet and a slap in the face to every Veteran out there, living or dead, it’s a danger to every U.S. citizen. On the other hand you will see the spin masters trying to do damage control by talking this idea down.

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