Josh
Photo taken at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, May, 2007

Meet Josh Beliell from Greenfield Indiana. This young man joined the military at age 27, six years after graduating from Purdue University and starting his career. He wanted to do something more and he joined the military in 2004 knowing full well that he would be heading off to combat. Josh lost both legs at the knee in an IED explosion in Iraq and was working hard in the physical therapy area when I met up with him.

Obama team considering plan in which vets would use private insurance for wounds

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki confirmed Tuesday that the Obama administration is considering a controversial plan to make veterans pay for treatment of service-related injuries with private insurance.

Congratulations Obama administration. You’ve achieved two of your primary objectives in coming to Washington. The first was finding more effecient ways of “doing business” and “reigning in costs”. The second is your goal of bringing people from all sides of the aisle together. As the last president would say, Mission Accomplished!.

But the proposal would be “dead on arrival” if it’s sent to Congress, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, said.

Murray used that blunt terminology when she told Shinseki that the idea would not be acceptable and would be rejected if formally proposed. Her remarks came during a hearing before the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs about the 2010 budget.

Not surprisingly, veterans groups are also stunned by these plans,

Currently, veterans’ private insurance is charged only when they receive health care from the VA for medical issues that are not related to service injuries, like getting the flu.

Charging for service-related injuries would violate “a sacred trust,” Veterans of Foreign Wars spokesman Joe Davis said. Davis said the move would risk private health care for veterans and their families by potentially maxing out benefits paying for costly war injury treatments.

Ed Morrisey at Hot Air neatly sums up the absurdidty of this proposal,

Let’s see. The same administration that wants to give tens of billions of dollars to GM, Citigroup, AIG, and a host of other banks and manufacturers wants men and women injured in service to their country to pay for the medical care that arises from these injuries? In what universe does Shinseki and the Obama administration live, anyway?

And people used to complain that Bush didn’t care enough about veteran care – even though he increased the VA budget by 56% from 2001 to 2008. Bush never offered the notion that the nation should shirk its duty to those who gave their health for the defense of America, especially not in the same week in which his administration signed a record omnibus bill with 8,000 pork items in it. In fact, I don’t think any administration has ever signaled such a policy, mostly because previous administrations weren’t dumb enough to try it, let alone crass enough to consider it an area to save a little cash.

In May 2008, I interviewed Annette, a dedicated wife and care giver for Eric, who was severely wounded in Iraq. Annette was a very compelling guest, helping us understand the frustrations and consequences of dealing with an overwhelmed VA system. She is a relentless advocate for her husband Eric. We admire her tenacity to get the best possible care for him. After listening to her describe the challenges, everyone, liberal and conservative, should be saying WE HAVE TO DO BETTER THAN THIS.

Certainly the VA is overwhelmed and changes need to be made to improve veterans care. We have had a spending orgy in Washington to stabalize the economy/banking sector. The numbers are staggering. Obama finally finds an area where we can be fiscally prudent and more effecient….on the backs of the men and women wounded in action. If there is one area of the federal budget where the public wouldn’t mind seeing an explosion of spending, it is in the medical care for the men and women fighting for us around the world.

This is change all right.