Our Soldiers Paying For Their Health Insurance Doesn’t Get Any More Stupid
Whenever there is some sort of a global problem such as Hitler’s armies rolling into France, North Korea invading South Korea, North Vietnam invading South Vietnam, Iraq invading Kuwait, and Al-Qaeda destroying the World Trade Center and Pentagon, our soldiers in the armed forces have gone to fight the wars. Time and time again, these men and women have risked their lives in order to protect the freedoms that Americans take advantage of. I would have thought that because of all the fighting our veterans have done for us, we would have the ability to thank them the right way.
I was wrong.
Our way of thanking all the veterans for their struggles in this nation’s numerous conflicts is the possibility of them having to pay for the health treatment that they receive for any of their service wounds. In other words, whatever sort of procedure they need done on a wound received while they were in active duty, they will have to pay for out of their own private insurance. They fight our wars for us, risk their lives, get wounded, and what they get in return is the chance to come home and start forking over their private insurance rather than the money that should be guaranteed to them by the VA.
What the heck kind of message are we sending to the brave men and women who fight for us? When I voted for President Obama, I believed that he wanted to bring our soldiers home, that he had the soldier’s interest in mind, and was going to stop sending them into harm for no reason. Instead what I have found was that I voted for a man who might want to make them pay for the wounds they received while serving our country.
That is absolutely ridiculous and cannot and should not be allowed to happen.
Now, I am the kind of guy who can see past a mistake which this obviously is. Because of that, I think what President Obama needs to do is guarantee that any treatments administered because of wounds attained because of service should be paid for by the government. Anything else, such as a flu or a car accident, should be paid for by that individual’s private insurance.
If a soldier comes home missing a leg, he or she should not have to worry about ridiculous premiums and their insurance going up. Instead, he or she should rest easy knowing that they are going to be taken care of by their country. What kind of country would we be if we looked at our returning soldiers and said, “Pay for your own wounds fighting our war.” That’s just uncalled for and frankly, not fair to our soldiers.
I can understand President Obama wanting to try and balance the budget and all of that, but if that’s his goal, he needs to find other ways to do. Cut back on our defense budget as a whole if we want to cut costs. In no way, though, should we be saying to our veterans that we’re no longer going to cover their wounds received in battle. What better way to turn our back on our brave soldiers than to do something stupid like that?
Update 1/7/10: Since publishing this article, I’ve come across sources that suggest President Obama’s words were taken out of context and are not, in fact, true. Therefore, I stand by what I say that soldiers should have their service injuries covered, but President Obama had nothing to do with them potentially losing it.
I could not bring myself to read this article because I was so distracted by the poorly constructed title.
In reply to the teacher. You should have read the article. Might have taught you something. No offence…Jacob, good job. I will forward this article on to my two nephews, who served in Iraq. Thank You Sweetie.
Friend of Your Poppadukes
Thanks a lot, Donna. I appreciate you stopping in to leave a comment. I would love to see your nephew’s opinions on this topic.
God Bless all our soldiers. My Father was in the military and we could not have afforded insurance. How about all those “folks” in DC? Think they should pay their insurance?
This is a scary thought! I have served my country and while I did not get injured in war; I am scared that the injuries that I did receive will not be substantinal enough to continue receive the benefits I have already. I have read through factchecker that some of those comments made by our president are fabricated. Even if they were if his intent in all of this was to make us pay for our own health insurance because we “volunteered” to serve our country and now injured is still wrong!
I agree with you and I don’t think I have heard anything about it since then. Chances are, it was taken out of context, but even then, even suggesting that our soldiers should have to pay for their health insurance from injuries caused by war or anything while being on active duty is preposterous. Thanks for your comment!
I think the author should be encouraged to do a little more research. The key term here is “service connected.”
As a military veteran who served for 22 years, I have seen the great work the VA does from beneath the avalanche of claims filed each day.
When people separate from the military, many of them file claims even if they have nothing currently wrong. This clogs an already overburdened system and delays benefits for the true heroes of our nation, our wounded warriors.
If an individual’s disability is deemed “service-connected”, the disability is given a percentage rating (ie: 10%, 20%, etc). The payments to the individual are tax-free and the individual, in most cases, is eligible for care at VA facilities at no cost.
The author may also want to read up, for some historical background, on the Agent Orange decision signed by President Clinton. This decision mandated an automatic service connection for our patriots who served in Vietnam during the time agent orange was being used for many health related issues. This provided care and payments for so many veterans who had for years been fighting for service-connection status and was long overdue justice for our Vietnam veterans.
I believe our new VA chief is doing as much as possible given the fact that more veterans are alive today than at any point in history and the system is becoming more bogged down each day.
In the future, you should place references for statements that your authors pass off as fact. This article is beyond spin and should be removed for its inaccuracies.
If you read the article carefully, Dennis, I don’t bash the VA at all. Instead, I bash something that President Obama said, which in the recent comment, I might have taken out of context since writing the article last March. My opinion, whether it is the correct one or not, is that if there is a service related or “service-connected” health issue, the government should be responsible for it. If it is something that did not come from military service, it should come from their private health insurance. I don’t believe that it should be part private health insurance and part VA.
I wouldn’t be adverse to the VA setting up a program that would limit the number of people separate from the military that file claims even if they have nothing wrong. However, what I said about in this article was that President Obama’s idea to cut back on veteran’s health insurance was a bad call. I’m not sure where I am missing facts; however, please feel free to leave another comment or send me an e-mail: jacob@wethepeoplepolitics.com. As for the references I’ve passed off as fact…I’m not sure which ones you’re referring to, so please let me know that as well.
Take a look here: http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfjan09/nf013109-1.htm
The CBO has the responsibility to look at ALL options.
Thank you for the fact check. I read an article on one of larger political blogs that suggested it, so it’s my error for not doing all my fact checking. I appreciate it, Dennis.
No problem…