Obama Administration Considers Requiring Veterans To Use Private Health Insurance for Coverage of Service-Related Injuries

This article discusses how the Federal government is trying to transfer their responsibility for taking care of our verterns to private insurance companies. Are these the same people that say that private insurance can not manage costs correctly and they can?

March 17, 2009 - Representatives of several veterans groups on Monday criticized a proposal that would bill private insurance companies for combat- and service-related medical care, McClatchy/Arizona Daily Star reports (McClatchy/Arizona Daily Star, 3/17). The proposal is included in President Obama's fiscal year 2010 budget proposal. Currently, the Department of Veterans Affairs covers those costs and bills health insurers only for treatment for conditions unrelated to veterans' military service.

Last month, 11 veterans groups wrote a letter to Obama, saying, "There is simply no logical explanation for billing a veteran's personal insurance for care that the VA has a responsibility to provide." The groups added that the policy would discourage employers from hiring veterans with disabilities, increase insurance premiums for disabled veterans and renege on the U.S. government's "sacred obligation" to care for the injuries veterans sustained during service (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 3/10). Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said, "Veterans of all generations agree that this proposal is bad for the country and bad for veterans," adding, "If the president and the [White House Office of Management and Budget] want to cut costs, they can start at AIG, not the VA." In a speech at VA on Monday, Obama said he hopes to increase VA funding by $25 billion over five years, but he did not address the policy proposal.

According to McClatchy/Daily Star, reaction from congressional lawmakers to the proposal has been "swift and harsh." Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, at a hearing last week described the policy proposal as "[d]ead on arrival," adding, "When our troops are injured while serving our country, we should take care of those injuries completely." Murray also said, "I don't think we should nickel-and-dime them for their care." VA Secretary Eric Shinseki at the hearing said that the plan was "a consideration," and noted that it was included as a revenue-generating provision in the department's proposed budget for 2010. Shinseki also said that "a final decision hasn't been made yet" (McClatchy/Arizona Daily Star, 3/17).

MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show" on Monday included a segment on the policy proposal. The segment included an interview with Rieckhoff (Maddow, "The Rachel Maddow Show," MSNBC, 3/16).