Veterans should buy health insurance
You may remember that, in his first few months in office, the President tried to make service-connected veterans buy health insurance. The idea went down in flames eventually, after the Veterans Service Organizations stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the Oval Office. Well, some rocket surgeons, writing in the pages of the New York Times, resuscitated the idea. Michael F. Cannon and Christopher Preble think that if veterans were forced to buy health insurance somehow it would prevent war;
We propose a system of veterans’ benefits that would be funded by Congress in advance. It would allow veterans to purchase life, disability and health insurance from private insurers. Those policies would cover losses related to their term of service, and would pay benefits when they left active duty through the remainder of their lives.
To cover the cost, military personnel would receive additional pay sufficient to purchase a statutorily defined package of benefits at actuarially fair rates. The precise amount would be determined with reference to premiums quoted by competing insurers, and would vary with the risks posed by particular military jobs.
Insurers and providers would be more responsive because veterans could fire them — something they cannot do to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans’ insurance premiums would also reveal, and enable recruits and active-duty personnel to compare, the risks posed by various military jobs and career paths.
Most important, under this system, when a military conflict increases the risk to life and limb, insurers would adjust veterans’ insurance premiums upward, and Congress would have to increase military pay immediately to enable military personnel to cover those added costs.
I guess the first step would be finding insurance companies who would be stupid enough to insure folks who fight our nation’s wars. It doesn’t seem very profitable to me – which is why the military has it’s own health care system, and there’s a health care system for veterans, because by it’s nature, there’s no chance for a profit in treating service-connected casualties.
The pair posit the contention that Congress wouldn’t have authorized the use of force in Iraq if they had to consider health care costs before the invasion of Hussein’s Iraq (in the form of a pay increase for the troops to cover the increase in premiums). Do we really want the full force of our foreign policy contingent on the prospective cost of health care?
Contrary to what the chattering classes believe, sometimes war is the answer and the troops understand what might be the costs to them. In a country that goes to the mall when the troops go to fight their wars, Americans need to accept the job of taking care of those troops instead of trying to find ways to compound their sacrifice.
Category: Dumbass Bullshit
I think the idea is fine. Give soldiers and vets money and let them buy their own health insurance. If the costs go up because of war or whatever increase the pay so there is no out of pocket.
Oh…isn’t that what Obamacare is supposed to do??
jonp…Veterans maybe, if they can get decent coverage at a decent rates and from quality companies. AD, I don’t see any company willing to take that financial risk. Even if backed by the “full faith and value” of the United States Government. Costs rising accordingly during AD combat time would be cost prohibitive for most any soldier and insurance company. Too many variables to calculate a fair premium.
What a couple of nimrods! I NEVER filled out a life insurance application that did not have a rider stating it was null and void if I committed suicide within two years, partook of dangerous activities such as sky diving AND any death was the result of an act of war. Yea the insurance companies use actuaries because they are artists at assessing risks. Try to find a life insurance company, privately paid for, willing to cover a guy in combat. Try to find a health insurance policy, privately paid, willing to cover a guy headed to combat and the potential lifetime losses to the company if he comes home without limbs or other serious injuries. They will never regain their premiums. Oh I see…the guys at the recruiters office just need to be more insurance minded about the MOS they choose. Let’s see we’ll have 10,000 clerks, and 20,000 supply techs for one boot on the ground. So all fifteen 11Bravos will be shipped of to the next conflict with lots of support behind them. These two idiots are on the loose folks. Think of the other whacky crap they could come up with!
Life, disability and health insurance funded by Congress?
You mean like Tri-Care and SGLI?
And for the veterans, Tri-Care for life, the VA and VGLI?
I know that on Active Duty, I pay part of the premium for my SGLI.
I’m pretty sure I’ll pay for Tr-Care for Life and VGLI also.
Those 2 morons should carry around a tree to replace all the oxygen they’ve wasted
Interesting that this came out the same day as the article which stated that of the 11 richest nations int he world, the US’ health care was both the most expensive and least effective. So their solution is to force vets and active duty even further into that morass? Let me guess, a service-related disability will become a pre-existing condition?
Well, now that the newspaper business is no longer as prestigious or profitable as it used to be the NYT might be interested in a lucrative contract that is a required legislative insurance premium funded through salary instead of another unfunded liability.
What a great scam, insurers guess at the future course of a war starting tomorrow…who in the room thinks they will ever guess on the low end of costs? Exactly, no one thinks that. This would be a most interesting piece of legislation, can you imagine those convserations?
We have to add 15,000 to PFC Jones’s salary to cover his insurance premium. What if PFC Jones decides a new Miata convertible is better than being healthy when he’s 50? Because at 18-25 we were all so smart when it came to our future health care needs after being beaten up for 30 years….
Geez, I didn’t think recreational marijuana was legal in NY yet, guess I was wrong.
VoV…Again thank you. Succinct and on point. If this came about I would go back to school to be an actuary. They would be in high demand.
Considering PFC Jones is a dude buying a Miata I would say he has a lot of other problems.
Better yet, why not find a way to make illegal aliens and welfare flunkies pay for the free IRS they’re getting instead of playing another round of “Let’s Fuck the Vets Some More”? OH WAIT, they’re a protected class, aren’t they?
I can see it now – “PFC Snuffy, since you were injured in a training accident prior to deploying to a combat zone we cannot cover your injury.”
The Zen Master and the Little Boy
“There’s a little boy and on his 14th birthday he gets a horse and everybody in the village says, “How wonderful. The boy got a horse.” The Zen master says, “We’ll see.”
Two years later, the boy falls off the horse, breaks his leg, and everyone in the village says, “How terrible.” And the Zen master says, “We’ll see.”
Then, a war breaks out and all the young men have to go off and fight… except the boy can’t cause his legs all messed up. And everybody in the village says, “How wonderful.”
And the Zen master says, “We’ll see”.