Obamacare Will Sever Insurance For Veterans.

This is just sickening to me. Just one more reason Obamacare is a huge pile of garbage. I am lucky to have my insurance through my wifes employer and when I do have to deal with the VA this does not effect me due to my 100% service connected disability status. But what about all of the struggling veterans who do not have service connected disabilities? This administration has no respect for the military they use to do their dirty work. To me this is just disgracefull and is a good example of just how bad we are screwed here in the us.

Source

For most Americans who oppose Obamacare, the constitutionality of the law’s mandate to buy insurance is less important than the power government has under the law to rob them of medical freedom. Ironically, those that lose freedom under Obamacare first could be the wounded warriors who fought for our freedom.

In 2010 President Obama promised Obamacare wouldn’t diminish health benefits for service families or retirees. He told the 9.6 million veterans and active duty personnel, who use TRICARE — the Defense Department’s health plan — or go to Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals and clinics, that they would be better off:


“If you’re in the VA or TRICARE, this will not force you to change systems…veterans would be eligible, potentially, for this health care exchange where they could select from a different set of plans and get some help in paying for their premiums depending on income levels.”

Yet, last week the administration unveiled a plan to remake TRICARE that breaks that promise. Most observers have focused on a proposal to raise premiums for military retirees younger than 65 from $460 a year to as much as $2,048 by 2017 (if they’re receiving more than $45,178 in retirement pay)

Nearly 12 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans live in poverty. A staggering 30 percent are either unemployed or have stopped looking for work altogether. Medicaid is their only non-TRICARE alternative. Veterans with family who with a combination of military pension (available after 20 years of service) and income make up to $32,000 a year would be required to enroll in Medicaid if they forgo TRICARE. Anyone earning above that could pay more out pocket under Obamacare than the $3,000 TRICARE cap on such costs.

It is a consant battle for us veterans to get what is owed to us. I just don't get why things must be this way.

Veterans should be given more liberty to get the care the need, when they need it. Whether or not the Supreme Court decides Obamacare is constitutional, one thing is certain: The president’s proposal forces our veterans to fight one more battle to get the care our nation owes them.

So, What are your thoughts on this?

If you are getting a $45,000 pension then you may have to pay $2,000 for health care. Doesn't seem unreasonable to me as it is better than what 90% of Americans get when they retire.

Originally posted by sligtlyskeptical
If you are getting a $45,000 pension then you may have to pay $2,000 for health care. Doesn't seem unreasonable to me as it is better than what 90% of Americans get when they retire.

That's not the part that bothers me the most as I agree that is not unreasonable. It is the poor and the young veterans without service connected disabilities that will be effected the most negatively with this issue. subsequentely those are the veterans who require alot of care these days.

originally posted by: sligtlyskeptical
If you are getting a $45,000 pension then you may have to pay $2,000 for health care. Doesn't seem unreasonable to me as it is better than what 90% of Americans get when they retire.

Except we are due that money and health care as part of the agreement we made to serve. Not getting it would be like your employer promising to pay you 15 an hour then once you start they pay you 5. It would be a breach of contract for out being volunteers to serve for 20 + years. If they want to change it for new people joining the military today that is a different story and that would be ok though I imagine it would reduce the amount of people volunteering to have their lives and families ruined by unjustified wars and deployments (WMD, Iraq etc...).

They said to us join up and we will pay you this much and provide you free health care for 20 + years of service. If they change it now it is a breach of contract and trust.

a reply to: Xeven

Welcome to the ways of the private sector.

I can totally understand the frustration. Countless private employers over the last 40 years have thrown out pensions, health care, etc, for people who worked their entire lives under the agreement that it was part of the deal.

There has been some democrats that have said they think the VA should be shut down and veterans put on Obamacare.

I used my local doctors at the time when i started having health problem and they claimed they could find nothing.
they finely said i have fibromyalgia and they could do nothing for me.

That was when i went to the VA. i am 10% service connected.
Within a couple weeks the VA had found i had Castleman's disease and later found i also had Sarcoidosis and neurological problems from the disorders.

The VA hospital i go to now is staffed by doctors from UCLA and USC medical school and are good.

Its not the doctors at the VA that are the problem its the non medical administration that runs the hospitals.

I am a ex EMT and would not go to a number of hospitals that i had worked around.
that means for me Obamacare is as bad as no care

People should relax. We have a new law. It can and will be changed and modified as the years pass to improve on it. The changes that occur will depend on who we the people elect to be our next President and Congressmen. Obama care has a lot of REALLY good stuff for Americans in it. It also has a lot of crappy stuff and is really to expensive in my opinion. The good news is we are not stuck with the bad stuff. It will be very hard for politicians to change the good stuff cause it will piss off the voters and it will be very easy for our elected politicians to get rid of or improve the bad stuff over time.

Just relax this law did not turn America into communist China. It did and is providing some healthcare to people that lacked it previously and prevents you from being excluded due to previous illness. Good stuff there.

Someone in my life is a Clinical Resource Director for a huge hospital chain and from what she is seeing this law is forcing Hospitals to cut costs and its pissing of some Doctors that are used to using the most expensive stuff even when there are medical equipment just as good at much lower cost. This is driving my friend crazy cause she is being pushed hard by her hospital to reduce costs due to ACA putting a pinch on their profits. ACA is working behind the scenes, you will see its effects in future lower cost health care which can result in lower insurance premiums unless we allow the insurance corporations to pocket the lower costs rather than lower rates.