Hear, hear.

I can understand the need to offset costs, but that is not the way to do it.

I can't believe anyone is even considering this. How about cutting back on the pork you bunch of capitol hill hypocrites!

The savings would more than pay for any sort of health insurance requirement you want to impose on these vets.

Yet why stop at charging veterans for medical care? They could charge our soldiers for each bullet they use. Perhaps they could pay for the gas their vehicles use. I'm sure I'm missing a few things.

Edit per Bluenutria: They could charge for funeral costs as well.



There must be a giant ancient secret sphincter hidden somewhere in D.C. from which these notions are felched.

How about they pay for:

the plane ticket over to wherever they're fighting.

the cost of "renting" their cots for the night.

their meals.

the privilege of serving their country; charges would be assessed yearly.

their medals, if earned in combat. If a deceased receives a medal, the next of kin must pay.

etc.


These seem just as reasonable.

The ultimate insult.

I see ways for them to cut costs every day where I work. And it doesn't involve cutting costs where the soldiers are involved.

That would be an abomination.

I re-read that over and over, and for some reason I kept reading it as veterinarians. I didn’t get it until I read the comments.

Non-service connected vets DO pay when they are seen at a VA hospital or clinic. They pay around $15 - $50 to see a doctor, depending on the reason, and pharmacy costs are now $7!

Costs are defrayed for those vets who meet low income guidelines (under $24K for a couple, last time I checked), and have a scale as the income rises.

There is not currently a system where the VA medical facilities can charge Medicare for those vets who receive it, and the ability to charge a medical insurance company has only been added in the last decade. THIS IS NOT OBAMA'S IDEA! It has already been in the works!

And I'm sure it's rarely used. If I HAD medical insurance, believe me, I would rather see a civilian doctor than face the VA system to try to get care.

When in the military, we were promised FREE medical care, not necessarily GOOD medical care.

And the DoD SHOULD pay for the service connected veterans. You break, you should pay to try to fix it!

Then the government would be hiring Blackwater...

IIRC, the pay levels were pretty low, and we were told it was because we got the "3 hots and a cot" plus around $1K a month in return for 24 hour a day preparedness. And our income was taxable!

Notice the last sentence: Jumping to conclusions a bit fast are we ?

Read the first line.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki confirmed that the Obama administration is considering making veterans pay for treatment of service-related injuries with private insurance