A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

It is well known that in its drive for health care reform, the White House and Congressional Democratic allies want to reduce the power of private insurance carriers, whose individual policies they see as being responsible for a large portion of the health care crisis (lack of coverage in general, use of the pre-existing condition argument to deny coverage in specific cases, fighting to refrain from paying for various medical treatments, etc.).

But there are times when private insurance carriers are important to the Obama Administration and its allies. One such time, apparently, is when veterans are needed to be cared for:

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."

The Obama Administration, of course, made much of its supposed desire to honor our veterans with the care that it and its allies claimed the Bush Administration never gave. How that promise is reconciled with the determination to outsource veteran care is a mystery. Private insurance carriers will only pass on the costs imposed on them by government to the rest of us, thanks to this arrangement. And the government shall have broken a promise to care for its fighting men and women.

Perhaps the Commander-in-Chief does not understand just how offensive this stance really is. If the government wants to save money, it can do so by refraining from costly and ineffective "stimulus" packages. Refraining from the care of veterans is positively wrong and the outsourcing of this critical task makes one wonder just how government proposes to take the lead on health care reform for the rest of us. Will non-veterans--like veterans--be told, at a critical moment, that the buck is being passed concerning their care, once a set of health care policies is passed and supposedly implemented?