This afternoon I received an e-mail blast forwarding a press release from Speaker Nancy Pelosi from Burns Strider, who I worked with briefly when I was organizing veterans for Hillary Clinton. It announced that the Obama administration was not going to proceed with the proposal to force veterans with combat-related injuries to use their private insurance for treatment. You can read the full news release with this link:
http://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/pressreleases?id=1055
Burns has worked for Speaker Peolsi as a Senior Advisor in the past, but I'm not sure what his current official relationship is now that he has his own firm.
The fact that I received the e-mail means that the opposition from veterans and their families from one end of the political spectrum to the other was loud enough and fierce enough that they're going way down the food chain to let anyone with any veteran contacts know that they made a mistake and they'll find another way to save money.
Showing posts with label VA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label VA. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
That wasn't what you told us when we signed up
During the 2008 election I was honored to serve as one of the two California Co-Chairs for Veterans for Obama. I believed then and I believe now that Barack Obama was and is the best choice to be President and Commander-in-Chief. But I am deeply disturbed at the recently announced policy proposal to have treatment for service-connected injuries charged to veterans' private insurance plans in order to save the VA money.
Not only does this break covenant between the country and those who offered their lives in service, but it puts at risk the insurability of veterans with service connected injuries and their families. Even if the injuries are excluded as pre-existing conditions, long term treatment of serious injuries would exhaust annual and even lifetime benefit limits on nearly all private policies.
If the injuries are service connected it is not the responsibility of the former service members, their families, their employers and their insurance companies to provide treatment. It is the responsibility of the people and their government who sent them into harm’s way.
Not only does this break covenant between the country and those who offered their lives in service, but it puts at risk the insurability of veterans with service connected injuries and their families. Even if the injuries are excluded as pre-existing conditions, long term treatment of serious injuries would exhaust annual and even lifetime benefit limits on nearly all private policies.
If the injuries are service connected it is not the responsibility of the former service members, their families, their employers and their insurance companies to provide treatment. It is the responsibility of the people and their government who sent them into harm’s way.
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