Posted on 03/19/2009 2:40:01 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The Obama administration on Wednesday abandoned a controversial plan to make veterans use private insurance to pay for costly treatments of combat-related injuries.
Stung by the angry reaction to the proposal, the administration made the decision after a meeting between officials from 11 veterans advocacy groups and top White House officials.
"Our voices were heard," said Norbert Ryan, the president of the Military Officers Association of America. "They made the right decision on this."
The plan would've reversed a longstanding policy of providing government health coverage for all service-related injuries. Few details emerged beyond its reported savings of $540 million, however.
Most veterans use private insurance only for health problems unrelated to their military service.
"This is a moral issue for us," said Paul Rieckhoff, the executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
What was most puzzling to experienced activists and others was that the White House floated the idea in the first place. Several said that the administration came off as politically tone deaf to the importance of the issue.
"They've grabbed hold of the 'third rail' and they shouldn't have done this," said Rick Weidman, director of government relations for Vietnam Veterans of America. "If they had asked anyone informally, we would have informed them, 'Are you kidding? All hell will break loose.'"
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that the intent of the plan had been to "maximize the resources available for veterans."
He said, however, that President Barack Obama, who met with the veterans groups on Monday in their first trip to the White House, recognized their concern that it could "under certain circumstances, affect veterans and their families' ability to access health care."
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
Good God, what were they thinking in the first place on this????
This way they don’t need body armor or better Humvees.
I’m worried this is another case of sleight of hand... We need to be vigilant. Just like they’re raising a big stink over the AIG bonuses so we won’t ask questions about all the BILLIONS of our tax dollars AIG has doled out to foreign countries...
Obama and his minions are like magicians - directing our attention one way while they do what they don’t want us to see with the other hand.
I’m also wondering if they are not doing this on purpose to try to evoke a response... I personally think that’s the point with a lot of this. Just keep hammering away till they tick someone off enough to do something radical, and then use that as an excuse to push even more down our throats.
Obama has asked people to go knock on their neighbors’ doors this weekend and ask them to support the budget. Knowing how livid some people are right now I wonder if Obama is HOPING for altercations that he can paint us with...
“what was it thinking?”
Hmm. Obama = “it”. True...
“It” was thinking, Is can do anything I wants to do bcos these crazy crackers are all tripped out on how sweet I am.
Egad. That's about as serious of a case of doublethink as I have ever seen from an administration --- it's right down in HCI territory.
LLS
Obamarama did it because, like Clinton, he has no regard for the troops. In his mind “public service” is community activism, protest rallies, government paper-pushing jobs, social work. Soldiers are just neanderthals who want to kill innocents and play with explosives. It’s their own fault they got hurt, because they put themselves in that situation. He doesn’t care about them.
I have a friend who thinks that it’s part of a plan to hollow out the military by making Guard/Reserve so unpalatble to people that they quit joining.
Leftists can’t figure out why people enlist so they’ll continue to poke and annoy us to see what makes us tick.
They were thinking they’d put an end to volunteering, that’s what they were thinking
> what was it thinking?
He was thinking that he could get away with it.
When he got caught he caved.
He’s try again later when it isn’t as noticeable.
Sadly, many will either excuse this or forget all about it .
If we made the President, his Cabinent and Congress all go out and get private health care out of their own pocket books I think we can probably achieve the same savings. What do you think, Barry?
two additional topics.
White House drops plan to bill disabled veterans for care
PRNewswire/Hawaii Free Press | 3-18-09 | Disabled American Vets
Posted on 03/18/2009 6:12:06 PM PDT by AndrewWalden
Edited on 03/18/2009 6:50:07 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2209587/posts
This way they don’t need body armor or better Humvees.
He’s try again later when it isn’t as noticeable.
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