The American Legion Strongly Opposed to President's Plan to Charge Wounded Heroes for Treatment
Contact: Craig Roberts of The American Legion, +1-202-263-2982 Office, +1-202-406-0887 Cell
WASHINGTON, March 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- 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.
"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."
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!"
Commander Rehbein was among a group of senior officials from veterans service organizations joining the President, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki and Steven Kosiak, the overseer of defense spending at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The group's early afternoon conversation at The White House was precipitated by a letter of protest presented to the President earlier this month. The letter, co-signed by Commander Rehbein and the heads of ten colleague organizations, read, in part, " There is simply no logical explanation for billing a veteran's personal insurance for care that the VA has a responsibility to provide. While we understand the fiscal difficulties this country faces right now, placing the burden of those fiscal problems on the men and women who have already sacrificed a great deal for this country is unconscionable."
Commander Rehbein reiterated points made last week in testimony to both House and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committees. It was stated then that The American Legion believes that the reimbursement plan would be inconsistent with the mandate that VA treat service-connected injuries and disabilities given that the United States government sends members of the armed forces into harm's way, and not private insurance companies. The proposed requirement for these companies to reimburse the VA would not only be unfair, says the Legion, but would have an adverse impact on service-connected disabled veterans and their families. The Legion argues that, depending on the severity of the medical conditions involved, maximum insurance coverage limits could be reached through treatment of the veteran's condition alone. That would leave the rest of the family without health care benefits. The Legion also points out that many health insurance companies require deductibles to be paid before any benefits are covered. Additionally, the Legion is concerned that private insurance premiums would be elevated to cover service-connected disabled veterans and their families, especially if the veterans are self-employed or employed in small businesses unable to negotiate more favorable across-the-board insurance policy pricing. The American Legion also believes that some employers, especially small businesses, would be reluctant to hire veterans with service-connected disabilities due to the negative impact their employment might have on obtaining and financing company health care benefits.
"I got the distinct impression that the only hope of this plan not being enacted," said Commander Rehbein, "is for an alternative plan to be developed that would generate the desired $540-million in revenue. The American Legion has long advocated for Medicare reimbursement to VA for the treatment of veterans. This, we believe, would more easily meet the President's financial goal. We will present that idea in an anticipated conference call with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel in the near future.
"I only hope the administration will really listen to us then. This matter has far more serious ramifications than the President is imagining," concluded the Commander.
SOURCE The American Legion
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so. Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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it's serious Tex, but it isn't new. I've had VA benefits for (OMG) 25 years now. They make you fill out a fiancial status from every year. They tried to bill my insurance companies all the time.
The ONLY reason i stopped going to teh VA was cuz the war started and i didn't want to clog up the system since i already have insurance. My insurance co never paid them a dime...
i thought my insurance co was FOS- they WERE getting a bargain... now they pay five times what they would had have if they paid the VA and i had stayed there.. blue cross even told me i could get a plan that would pay them, but it would cost more... i was like, what do you mean cost more? the VA is cheaper than a private doctor and you are gonna pay either way. they pay more now....
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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I have VA now, but im moving to private this year now that my business is growing and can afford to do so. It helped when I first got out last April, but I learned that some VA hospitals have poor care. Plus all the good doctors are in private practice. If it's government issued, or government related it isnt going to be the best that is for sure.
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so. Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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the VA has some great doctors, you just have to get past the paperwork jerks...
remeber the good doctors care about people the most...
the wost doctor i ever saw was at Johns Hopkins and that's in the world's top five.. i still suffer form what that bashturd did to me 12 years later. he thought he was a demigod and could do no wrong.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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Not sure it matters as long as Vets can get treated somewhere without worrying about it, that's the important thing.
Let the politicians fight over the right and wrong of it, as long as the veteran and his family do not get the shaft for his or her service.
And that includes the politics involved within these service organizations. They have never been real high on my list either, but they do serve a purpose for quite a few vets.
I am like Glassman, i choose not to clog up the VA health care system. I take my care outside the VA and use private insurance to do so.
And that is on a rated disability that i do this.
The VA will pick up all prescriptions at a minimal charge or nothing if the Vet cannot afford it, even if they are not service connected.
That can be a huge savings to Vets with a lot of these high price prescriptions, maybe even a life saver.
As Glassman stated, it's been this way for a long time, but the VA has never forced the issue, if you did not want to give them the information, maybe that will be different now.
There are good points made in this article, not that i agree with all of them.
Posts: 3875 | From: ca. | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by CashCowMoo: I have VA now, but im moving to private this year now that my business is growing and can afford to do so. It helped when I first got out last April, but I learned that some VA hospitals have poor care. Plus all the good doctors are in private practice. If it's government issued, or government related it isnt going to be the best that is for sure.
And some private hospitals have poor care.
Plus, in many cases, all the good doctors are not elsewhere.
Your claim that anything that is done by the government isn't the best is asinine and false. I offer as one example, M. D. Anderson Hospital in Houston, known world wide as the absolute epitome in cancer treatment. Another example is the NTSB, which is THE authority on the subject.
Cow, you need to stop these bigoted and false attacks.
Lying is a sin.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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I'm fairly sure that by now there is enough cause and evidence of it to ban bdgee. Truth is he's getting worse by the post and is truly making every thread unreadable.
Posts: 2965 | Registered: Aug 2005
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bdgee truly thinks he is God on this board. All knowing, always right, and if you do not agree you are the worst piece of scum there is.
Ive always said and will keep saying it says a lot about a man who can only call people names like a child and behave so irrationally.
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so. Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Relentless.: I'm fairly sure that by now there is enough cause and evidence of it to ban bdgee. Truth is he's getting worse by the post and is truly making every thread unreadable.
what do you think bdgee? can we stop the stupid name calling and stick to fact based retorts?
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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"bdgee truly thinks he is God on this board."
What rigtht has he got to constantly be posting crap like that intentionally inbtended to be insulting and name calling.
You stop that crap and we won't need to worry with it, glass.... I'm fed up with you assaulting me when this jerk pulls this crap.
Why haven't you posted to that jerk suggesting he should stop the slander in insults. Has he allowed a single day to pass in the last six months except to cast about insults at me? A single hour? I don't know of it.
Look at my post that he responds to and note that I didn't insult or attack, at all. I ask that he stop his bigoted and false attacks. Not just at me, but generally. he is as bad as PM with it. Yet you point at me and cryptically, so as to encourage the jerk, "what do you think bdgee? can we stop the stupid name calling and stick to fact based retorts?" Why wasn't that asked of him? He's the one posting insults, directly at me, and he does it incessantly, with encouragement from you.
And it is time to think about what rel adds here but to be nasty.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by glassman: you are not being singled out bdgee, and you know it.
That's not true. You have singled me out and encourage the jerks to attack by failing to stop them and pointing at me instead of me when they pull the crap.
Yes, fewer post here because of the hate and insults and if you stopped being one sided about it it could cure itself. What you are doing is allowing a cadre of nasty posting extreme right-wingers to attack as a group and they, with your blessing are dominating every thread and chasing off non-extremist. It is impossible to even consider non-political topics here, because a cow or a rel or a PM jumps in with their nastiness and post the latest rant from Limbaugh or Hanity.
Global warming is a serious scientific topic, not just a play ground for the illiterate and intellectually challenged to insult everyone that isn't republican to the core. But you'd never know it from reading the strings of hate post that ensue from even truing to carry on a conversation on the topic.
Even the "Listening" thread often has right-wing political trash talk by them. WHY?
(And it is time to do something about rel.)
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by CashCowMoo: bdgee truly thinks he is God on this board. All knowing, always right, and if you do not agree you are the worst piece of scum there is.
Ive always said and will keep saying it says a lot about a man who can only call people names like a child and behave so irrationally.
We'll Bdgee is correct in that you attack Obama unfairly the majority if not all the time without checking to see if such issues that you bring up were present Pre-Obama... It takes Glass sometimes to put you in your place about such facts...
-------------------- Let the world change you... And you can change the world.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna Posts: 4669 | Registered: Mar 2004
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"nd yes cash has been calling bdgee names too.."
Often,. in fact, incessantly....
As yet, you have never so much as suggested that cow stop the trash. That's encouraging him (and the rest of the trash talking right-wingers) to continue to be nasty and insulting. They know it is what you like.
And denying that fact is kindergarten.
But, what the hey, cow is glass's pet.....
Pet what, I don't know.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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take a break bdgee. i consider him a friend, i've know him here longer than you. check his date. i've followed his deployments from day one as much as he was allowed to let on.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by bdgee: "nd yes cash has been calling bdgee names too.."
Often,. in fact, incessantly....
As yet, you have never so much as suggested that cow stop the trash. That's encouraging him (and the rest of the trash talking right-wingers) to continue to be nasty and insulting. They know it is what you like.
And denying that fact is kindergarten.
But, what the hey, cow is glass's pet.....
Pet what, I don't know.
Yeah I wouldnt bag on Glass either bdgee. He is the middle bridge between both sides on this board.
Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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well, now that we are all on the same thread, in the interest of the board being more "pleasant" for lack-of a better term, i would apreciate it very much if you two would agree to disagree without the name calling and calling each other stupid.
bringing up a fox "news' articles is not slander.
the fox people might be slanderers, but bringing the article for lively debate is not ...
and cash.. for bdgee's benefit? haven;t i told you half a dozen times that it's too soon to be trying to "bring down" the democratic machine? ,,, to keep your powder dry for when they really do screw up (they will)...
it's not likely IMO that PM is going to stop calling everyone here names, but you two could at least try .
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by glassman: take a break bdgee. i consider him a friend, i've know him here longer than you. check his date. i've followed his deployments from day one as much as he was allowed to let on.
He's your protected little favorite name calling trouble maker is what he is and you need to stop apologizing for him and straighten him out. He isn't alone in having been in service, though you seem to indicate that it is what you favor him for. That's bad.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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He is not in favor of anything. He just knows when it comes to certain topics I know what im talking about. You just wish you had someone to relate to. You are your own creature on here bdgee. That is why I asked you a while back if you had any friends.
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so. Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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Cow, there may be something you imagine you know a lot about. Whatever it is, either it hasn't been shown here or it is indeed a figment of imagination. Your only purpose here appears is to be insulting and posting horrid fictions intended to soil the character of people.
It is not my fault you choose the part of a jerk. Possibly it is at least partially genetic and, thus, you are not to blame either. But it is your fault that you have chosen me as your victim. AND I AM FED UP WITH IT!
If you don't want exactly what you dish out, what sort of prissy little bitty mental case are you? You can't hold your own in the fights you start, then you run to glass for protection. You need to simply stop starting fights, then you won't need protection. (The pity is he grants your every wish and that isn't good for this place or for the development of your personality.)
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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bdgee? as for the banning question from relentless? don't you think that's hilarious? i mean, he's been banned like five times or more.. i thought it was funny. i thnk he's funny all the time. i know alot of people don't get his humor...
i sure as he77 don't get limbuggers humor... never did, and the people in my family that started listening to him way back when he started claimed he was hilarious... i never laughed once..
the thing is? the dow lost half its value in the last year, and i happen to agree that it could lose half again.
there ain't much to laugh about these days unless you work on it alittle bit. i know i am... i'm also working on making sure i'm not part of the depression if it does hit.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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"bdgee? as for the banning question from relentless? don't you think that's hilarious? i mean, he's been banned like five times or more."
So I have been led to believe. I don't want to know why. To tell the truth, when he isn't in one of his "moods" he can offer some quite solid and thought provoking ideas. But he only does that sparingly and he is a vicious poster, concentrating most often on in insulting the character of others for no apparent reason.
He doesn't need to be banned, just reminded that he gets a bit out of line and needs to respect others AND THEIR CONCERNS.
(If it comes to banning the fool, I want to know about it first, because I will stand with him on that. Not because I find him funny (I seldom do...it is hard to to find reason to laugh at something when it is smearing the character of someone just for the fools own amusement), but because he does sometimes provide a new or tantalizing idea worth consideration. Not often, but sometimes. But then, I wouldn't push for PM's banning and I know that would improve the atmosphere of Allstocks.)
"there ain't much to laugh about these days unless you work on it alittle bit"
Oh, I try. And I see others trying to also. They do well until cow or his brethren PM or his cousin interjects and declares some silliness about a song or some memory from times gone by to be socialistic and tells us we are all going to hell and simultaneously announces we worship Kennedy or love Clinton. (I never supported a Kennedy or a Clinton and I have to put up with that sh-t?)
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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