Not to mention that most insurance companies won't pay diddly-squat for "act-of-war" related losses.

What happens to Veterans who get jobs at companies that provide benefits? If there is an (automatic?) payroll deduction (uh, tax) that overlaps their existing coverage from Uncle Sam, who pockets the change?

I haven't sweated the details on this, but what I think this is is simply a requirement that the veteran exhaust any private insurance coverage he may have before the government benefits kick in. I think Medicare has the same requirement. This strikes me as not that unreasonable - why let the private insurers off the hook? They should make good on any coverage they have supposedly been providing.

Having a sensible single-payer system would eliminate the need for these types of gymnastics, but we're not there yet, are we?

I'm a veteran who's never had to avail myself of my VA medical benefits. I do, however, have an acquaintance who had a quadruple bypass procedure done last year at a VA hospital in Texas and, according to him, there was means testing done before he qualified to have the entire thing done on the government's dime.

The VA already does this. I'm 80 percent disabled but have private insurance through my employer. The VA bills my insurance for any treatment I receive at the VA. I do not pay any copays or other out of pocket expenses. I don't have any problem with this. If I didn't have private insurance, I would still get treated at the VA.

DOD does it all the time. Retirees are charge for inpatient and outpatient services via their insurance (private) for services rendered. If the retiree does not have a third party insurance then the gov picks up the tab.

"Best health care available in the America"?

Um, in a word, no. I've heard too many first-hand stories of horrors at the VA to buy this line anymore. Perhaps they are super-efficient. Perhaps there are some macro measures that show them ahead of other health care providers. But in many areas their hospitals are crap. Here in DC, if you talk to doctors and nurses that practice at the VA and other hospitals, they will tell you the VA is the worst in terms of patient care. I've heard similar stories from doctors, nurses, and patients in Mississippi, Chicago, and areas of California.

I'm not even sure why it would be under consideration, and Shinseki didn't offer any light on the subject.

Unless there's a larger context that we don't know about, then I don't know why they'd ever consider it.
Any health care "reform" that includes private, profit-motivated insurers, who can accept or reject whoever they want, and who can exclude an endless list of illnesses from coverage, isn't going to solve squat.

It is the best.

JFLO, so you make a judgement based only second had horror stories? That's pretty stupid. So you deregard all the positive reports of VA care because? Making decision based upon anecdotes is a stupid thing to do. The same people who rate Kaiser and other medical systems are the ones who rated the VA. You don't know what you are talking about. Many docs bad mouth the VA because the are afraid of the competition.

JFLO, so you make a judgement based only second had horror stories? That's pretty stupid. So you deregard all the positive reports of VA care because? Making decision based upon anecdotes is a stupid thing to do. The same people who rate Kaiser and other medical systems are the ones who rated the VA. You don't know what you are talking about. Many docs bad mouth the VA because the are afraid of the competition.

Look, I'm not a veteran, have no experience with the VA Hospital system and have only anecdotal information to go on, but every vet I've ever talked to has nothing good to say about the VA system. Moreover, I've known a number of MDs and RNs who work and the VA system and few of them have anything good to say either.

From both sources, words like "horror" "mindless bureaucracy" and "hated" often come up.

I believe we must have some sort of national health system and that private health, as currently constituted, sucks, but I'm not sure that the VA system is such a paragon of virtue.

My brother is married to a chest surgeon. His medical care is partly VA and partly his wife's doc friends.

He says the VA is no-nonsense, rigorous, conservative. No fancy new meds. Fewer choices in their formulary. Good on preventative care. No defensive medicine to head off med malpractice issues. Big on wringing out every inefficiency possible.

He likes it but has minor grumbles that VA's bedside manner is lacking in comparison to the fancy society doc types he sees through his wife's connections.

The bigger question, "why are they considering this," seems pretty simple: So they can say they did! What better way to get off the hook for not doing something "free-markety" than saying, "we tried, but Congress wouldn't let us"?

Matt P. on Digby's blog made the following comment about this story:

Yeah, I hate to sound like, leave Obama alone... but this is a "who pays for this" issue that has pretty much NOTHING to do with a wounded vet him- or herself. Of course Sen. Murray's out there spinning the tale that this is a plan to "make vets buy private insurance"... it's basically that, if a veteran has private insurance, the bill for care is sent to the private insurance company, and that costs the company money (and saves the VA some $), and I'd imagine Sen. Murray has some campaign contributors who don't like the sound of that.

I think the legitimate concern with it is, does this make private insurance companies less likely to insure or more likely to drop members of the military? There should be safeguards against that. But otherwise, as norb said, read past the headline. Remember always: the media makes more money when there's political conflict. And when the ACTUAL conflict isn't sexy enough... they have no shame about ginning it up.
Matt P.

***********

this story is not what it appears to be. This is a way to actually HELP vets use up their deductibles IF they have private insurance. Truth is, the private insurers will hate this idea because it'll cost them.

Patty Murray is pushing back by lying about the program. Her insurance company constituents probably put her up to it. There would be no out-of-pocket expenses paid by vets, and vets with no insurance would be covered by full VA benefits..as will vets WITH insurance. The VA will simply go after their insurance companies for the money.

Figures insurance companies and their shills would misrepresent what Obama was proposing.

I am a retired RN and I get my medical care at the VA in Richmond VA because I am disabled and on SS Disability. This is the best facility I have ever been in. The hospital has doctors train here from Medical College of VA. It is also one of the few "Poly trauma" centers in the VA system.
I get any and all medications I need for only $8 per prescription a month. What is great in the VA medical system is the computerized medical records. Everything is in the computer system and it is so great. When I leave my doctors' office and go to the lab or the Xray dept. they already have the orders and it makes things run so smoothly. WHen I call in to leave a message for my doctor there are nurses who immediately enter the information in the record and it is immediately flagged to the doctor so they know there is a request etc.
I have worked in many great hospitals in my career and I don't want to have to go back to them. I love my VA here in Richmond,VA

veterans groups wrote a pre-emptive letter last week to President Obama opposing the idea

Just so I have this straight... these vets prefer government health care over private insurance?

My gawd! Our military has been infiltrated by SOCIALISTS!

Sounds like the commenters here have pretty well straightened out this misleading meme. I would also add that, AFAIK, to get VA care you must go to a VA facility. That's great if you live near one, but not so much if the nearest one is a long distance away.

How come FDR could find a whole cabinet full of intelligent people who were also Democrats, and we get the Obama Administration, where there's one smart guy and a bunch of....

Democrats.

So, MichMan, what do you know, like two vets? You make me ashamed to think I have to put up with idiots like you along with the other idiots called wingnuts.

I'm a Vet, I love the treatment I have received from the VA. Had I not gotten what I did, I'd likely be dead. I don't hear anyone complaining when I'm at my local VA here in Los Angeles.

Can all the morons who claim they're "progressives", just go join the moderate wing of the Republican Party, get their heads stomped in, and get out of the way of the rest of us?

Sheesh.... and this is supposed to be the "intelligent" wing of the blogosphere.

veterans groups wrote a pre-emptive letter last week to President Obama opposing the idea

Just so I have this straight... these vets prefer government health care over private insurance?

My gawd! Our military has been infiltrated by SOCIALISTS!

Posted by: toowearyforoutrage on March 12, 2009

That's the first thought that occurred to me too. But there may be more. Consider that Obama (or someone working for him) may be using this to make it clear that when politics is not involved the politicians actually want government to do some things. So, he offers them a choice, they say 'free market? No way' and then he offers them some kind of health care reform and when they demand 'free market' he says, "But you've already said you prefer government services.

Sneaky if that's what they're doing. I think it's not very smart to do that if he really thinks he can bind Congress to that.

However, IF they can create a lot of savings in the existing system with a set of small reforms (like IT and changing incentives), then it becomes much easier to argue for a government plan for the uninsured since the savings will pay for it AND Congress will have already said they are (at least) okay with a gov. plan for those unfortunates. Now that is an argument that would carry more weight.