VoteVets: Medicare buy in helps veterans
I hate to keep harping on the folks at VoteVets (who am I kidding?), but the other day, dicksmith made the most absurd assumption I’ve ever read. In his article he claims that unless there’s a medicare buy-in provision in the health care bill, veterans will suffer.
Another group that this will hurt greatly is veterans. A recent study out of Harvard found that 2,266 veterans died last year because they did not have health insurance. This is more than 14 times then number of deaths suffered by US troops in Afghanistan in 2008. Without the Medicare buy-in, thousands of Vietnam era veterans-who fall precisely in this age range-will not be able to afford healthcare coverage.
For one thing, that Harvard study which concluded that 2266 veterans died last year from a lack of health care is completely manufactured. From what I’ve read about the study, it was taken from a small sampling and extrapolated across the entire population, ending up with an entirely made up number – instead of actually counting dead bodies. That’s twice in two weeks someone at VoteVets has used that study to scare their readers into backing the health care plan in Congress.
As far as Vietnam veterans not getting health care as a result of the buy-in going down to defeat, that’s ridiculous. The only veterans who can’t get VA health care are folks without a service-connected disability who make enough money to buy their own insurance. If they can afford their own insurance, why would they want to buy into Medicare? And if a veteran is poor, how can he afford to BUY IN to Medicare?
Of course, dicksmith goes right off the rails answering my comments with some crap about the Air Force being unconstitutional without answering the main thrust of my points. I don’t how the buy-in part shoots right over his head. How is a veteran with no money going to afford a buy-in? I guess that sort of pretzel logic is what Soltz requires from his bloggers so they can support the Democrat/Soros agenda.
Category: Health Care debate
What a bunch of stooges doing anything and everything to stay in the good graces of the Democrats. They have not touched Afghanistan — they took no position. Stunning for a veteran’s group to remain silent on a war while advocating health care. Man, they are so easy to see through.
John-
the problem is that you are trying to take Obamacare at face value. The entire thing is just feint to get universal healthcare’s nose under the tent flap. The Medicare buy in is just the latest version of the public option, which became co-ops, which turned into the Medicare buy in. No matter how the camel gets it’s nose under, the end result is the same. Free, crappy, Cuban-style healthcare for veterans as well as civilians.
There is a free market solution to this communist BS. Using insurance for every last trip to the Doctor is stupid. You could pay a fee directly to the Doctor of your choice for routine check-ups, treatment & “ouchies”, cutting out the insurance middle-man and have a catastrophic insurance policy in case you sprout a cancer or need to replace a knee-cap. This would cost you half as much as current insurance policy rates.
What about the poor? The poor can walk into any hospital and get treatment as needed as it stands today. If a health care system is put in place for them to receive preventative care & catastrophic treatment, there had better be controls and terms (drug tests for eligibility) of compliance they have to live up to in order to receive the health care. This violates a lot of privacy considerations, too bad-so sad, you want money out of my wallet due to misfortune or bad planning on your part, I don’t want to provide for your health care because YOU decided to ruin YOUR health with drugs/alcohol.
Not one person has died due to lack of available health care. Druggies and drunks die of stupidity but none are thrown out of the ER, that in none are thrown out anywhere except cities that are, and have been, ran into the ground by democrats. Every major city that is a disaster is governed by democrats elected by idiots who love pain and welfare. Medicaid designed for the poor has became the largest supplier of drugs sold on the street. Get em free and make big money selling them.
From the survey:
“We have no information about duration of insurance coverage from this survey.”
Exactly. They looked at the insurance when they were interviewed. They never looked at if the person did or didn’t have insurance the entire time or if the person died with insurance. They also did not exclude or catagorize cause of death.
Hypothetically, a subject is interviewed in 1995 and has no insurance (between jobs). Before 2000, he plows his car into the back of a tractor trailer while changing radio stations. He is now one of the “uninsured” death statistics.
And DickSmith pulled the 2,266 out of his home (usually called his 4th point of contact). There are 3 references to “veteran” in the survey. One from the bibliography, another explaining what the “VA/Champus” means, and the third is where they explain how they excluded all veterans covered by “VA/Champus” from the entire survey.
Why would they exclude Vets under the VA/Champus? Probably because if they didn’t exclude that group that is forever covered and possibly has long-term illness, it would DESTROY their statistics which when all is said and done is shaky at best.