Emanuel plans to meet with veterans’ groups

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is expected to meet with veterans groups this week amid consternation over a plan that would dramatically alter the way the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) handles insurance claims.

Several prominent veterans groups are fighting the White House on a proposal that would allow the VA to charge private insurance companies for the treatment of veterans with service- and war-related injuries.

{mosads}Coming out of a meeting with President Obama on Monday, the commander of the American Legion, the largest veterans’ group in the country, said he was “deeply disappointed and concerned.”

Legion Commander David Rehbein said he was “clearly angered by the meeting,” during which it “became apparent … that the president intends to move forward with this unreasonable plan.”

Now the tough-talking White House chief of staff gets another round in the fight. The meeting was scheduled for Thursday but could happen as early as Wednesday, sources tell The Hill. The meeting is scheduled to be about the general VA budget, but the issue of health insurance will most likely come up.

It’s also the second White House meeting these groups will have had this week.

The White House appears to have little political capital on this issue. The veterans community is united against the plan and senior Democrats in the Senate and House have voiced their opposition.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) told VA Secretary Eric Shinseki last week that if such a plan were to come up on Capitol Hill, it would be “dead on arrival.”

“When our troops are injured while serving our country, we should take care of those injuries completely. I don’t think we should nickel and dime them for their care,” Murray said during a hearing on the budget.

The chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), said in a statement on Tuesday that under his leadership the panel will “will not advance any such legislation.”

In their budget proposal for the VA, all Senate members of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee told the two leaders of the Senate Budget Committee that they oppose the health insurance issue.

The chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), also expressed opposition to the proposal and said that VA can still meet its revenue needs without charging veterans private or employer-offered health insurance.  Filner also has strong support from ranking member Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.).

Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine) went as far as saying that he would not support the budget if such a plan is included.

“It’s unconscionable and it is an insult to our veterans who have been hurt overseas,” Michaud told Shinseki during a committee hearing last week.

Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas), an injured combat veteran who fought in two wars, also blasted a new White House proposal to force service-injured veterans to pay for their own healthcare.

“I will fight like mad to stop this rash and reckless proposal,” said Johnson, who encouraged the public to call the White House and tell the president “that valiant wounded warriors are the absolute last people we need to hit up to balance any budget.”

Under the potential proposal, insurance providers would be billed by the VA for the treatment of wounds and conditions sustained as a result of their military service. The VA now picks up those costs, and only bills insurance providers for medical treatment unrelated to a veteran’s military service. Veterans generally pay a co-pay charge for treatment at a VA hospital.

Veterans groups are enraged over the proposal, charging that it would discourage employers from hiring disabled veterans by raising the premiums insurance companies would charge. They also argue that the plan could jeopardize health insurance for entire families. Veterans groups also argue that the VA is abdicating its responsibility to veterans.

Veterans groups indicated at the end of February that they meant war if such a proposal became reality.

“There is simply no logical explanation for billing a veteran’s personal insurance for care that the VA has a responsibility to provide,” Disabled American Veterans (DAV), The American Legion and nine other veterans groups wrote in a letter to Obama late last month.

“While we understand the fiscal difficulties this country faces right now, placing the burden of those fiscal problems on the men and women who have already sacrificed a great deal for this country is unconscionable.”

Joe Violante, DAV’s national legislative director, told The Hill last week the administration would raise about $500 million in additional revenue from insurance collection on military service-related injuries alone.

The idea to bill insurers for service-related injuries is not a new one, said Violante. It’s an idea that has been floating around since the Clinton administration.

Veterans groups were pleased with the numbers in Obama’s first VA budget. That proposal would increase the VA’s budget from $97.7 billion this fiscal year to $112.8 billion for fiscal 2010.

Tom Gavin, an Office of Budget and Management spokesman, stressed that the VA budget put forth by the administration “provides substantial increase for veterans’ medical care.”