Obama’s Response to Veterans Private Insurance Plan: FALSE!

There is an e-mail circulating purporting to include comments made by Obama after he learned of the mass opposition to his plan to have the VA bill the private health insurers of military personnel for injuries received while on active duty. This email is a mixture of facts, misattributions, and falsehoods. All in all, it is false.

THE EMAIL

THIS HAS GOT TO BE THE MOST OUTRAGEOUS STATEMENT EVER MADE BY A PUBLIC OFFICIAL LET ALONE BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. AND THIS GUY IS OUR “COMMANDER IN CHIEF”.  HE IS A DISGRACE. UNBELIEVABLE PRESIDENT???

HERE IS HIS RESPONSE WHEN HE BACKED OFF FROM HIS DECISION TO REQUIRE THE MILITARY PAY FOR THEIR WAR INJURIES. WHAT AN EMPTY HEADED PERSON HE MUST BE…

Bad press, including major mockery of the plan by comedian Jon Stewart, led to President Obama abandoning his proposal to require veterans carry private health insurance to cover the estimated $540 million annual cost to the federal government of treatment for injuries to military personnel received during their tours on active duty. The
President admitted that he was puzzled by the magnitude of the opposition to his proposal.

“Look, it’s an all volunteer force,” Obama complained. “Nobody made these guys go to war. They had to have known and accepted the risks. Now they whine about bearing the costs of their choice? It doesn’t compute..” “I thought these were people who were proud to sacrifice for their country, “Obama continued “I wasn’t asking for blood,  just money. With the country facing the worst financial crisis in its history, I’d have thought that the patriotic thing to do would be to try to help reduce the nation’s deficit. I guess I underestimated the selfishness of some of my fellow Americans.”

Please pass this on to everyone including every vet and their families whom you know.

How in the world did a person with this mind set become our leader? I didn’t vote for him!!!

THE TRUTH

President Obama did not utter the words attributed to him. They were actually part of a satirical comedy piece by conservative humorist John Semmens which was published on his site on March 21, 2009. It is also not true that President Obama ever proposed to “let the military pay for their war injuries.”

The kernel of truth behind this item, which was the basis of Mr. Semmens’ satire, was that in conjunction with meeting with several veterans groups in March 2009, the Obama administration floated a proposal to save the federal government an estimated $540 million per year by billing veterans’ private insurance companies for the treatment of their combat injuries and other service-related health problems. (Currently only non-service-related medical treatments are so billed.) The proposal would not have, as was often misreported, forced veterans to pay for the treatment of their injuries out of their own pockets or required them to buy private insurance; but it did raise the prospect that injured or ill veterans might find it harder or more expensive to purchase health coverage, or to obtain employment in the private sector if employer-funded private insurance plans had to cover the additional costs of treating injuries and other service-related health problems.

The plan was heavily criticized by veterans almost from the moment it was presented to them and within 48 hours of floating the idea the White House dropped the plan. However, Obama did receive a fair amount of criticism for not recognizing the potential fall-out from an idea such as this prior to it being made public. The possible question that remains to be answered is how did someone dumb enough to suggest something like this get hired into the Obama White House.