Fox News promo falsely claimed Obama "pushes a plan" requiring vets to pay for health insurance
SUMMARY: Fox News aired a promotion for a broadcast of Hannity that falsely claimed: "[President] Obama pushes a plan that could force vets to pay through the roof for health coverage." In fact, the White House has stated it does not support a provision previously under consideration that would have billed military veterans' private insurance companies for treatment of their combat-related injuries performed at Veterans Administration hospitals.
During the March 19 edition of Fox & Friends, Fox News aired a promotion for that evening's broadcast of Hannity that falsely claimed: "[President] Obama pushes a plan that could force vets to pay through the roof for health coverage." In fact, the White House has stated it does not support a provision previously under consideration that would have billed military veterans' private insurance companies for treatment of their combat-related injuries performed at Veterans Administration hospitals. In a March 18 press release, press secretary Robert Gibbs stated of the "third party billing issue" that "the President has instructed that its consideration be dropped":
The President has consistently stated that he is committed to working with veterans on the details of the 2010 VA Budget Proposal. The President demonstrated his deep commitment to veterans by proposing the largest increase in the VA budget in 30 years and calling VSO [veterans service organizations] and MSO [military service organizations] leaders into the White House for an unprecedented meeting to discuss various aspects of the budget proposal. In considering the third party billing issue, the administration was seeking to maximize the resources available for veterans; however, the President listened to concerns raised by the VSOs that this might, under certain circumstances, affect veterans and their families' ability to access health care. Therefore, the President has instructed that its consideration be dropped. The President wants to continue a constructive partnership with the VSOs and MSOs and is grateful to those VSOs and MSOs who have worked in good faith with him on the budget proposal.
From the March 19 promo for Fox News' Hannity:
ANNOUNCER: This is the thanks they get? Obama pushes a plan that could force vets to pay through the roof for health coverage. Fred Thompson asks: Don't America's heroes deserve better?
What an incredible story! Thank you for posting this link, and I recommend it to all.
Fred!! Where was your *outrage* when Bush denied care and armor for our troops?
when i was in college, one of my classemates and good friends in the history program was a former 101st airborne guy, who had served in afghanistan when that invasion took place. and then was in the initial wave of Iraq. he said that in both places alot of them had to hold their equipment together with duct tape.
Hey, j! You said you're in PA. Where abouts? Me and prince are in the 'burgh.
he did. he pushed it right out the door into the garbage can.
look at some of the responses from a few of the righty tighties who post here. I'd say fox's mission is accomplished.
I heard many callers on Hannity et al bringing this issue up. There will be a sizeable number of misinformed people as a result. This works for right wing propagandists.
Their viewers don't have any reason to doubt, nor motivation to research, the claims that Fox makes. I'm almost surprised I haven't recieved an "outrage e-mail" from my Dad, or one of my many conservative (but sadly misinfomred) friends on this. THEY don't come hear to verify. They just start spreading the lies even farther. Gotta make sure EVEYONE "knows" what's "going on!"
I get daily calls from my misinformed son about the media treatment of Rush Limbaugh, right about the time his radio chatter is on. He is a truck driver and listens to the drivel all day long on his radio machine. He doesn't realise i listened to this guy a long time ago and decided RL doesn't add to my knowledge. As far as motivation to find the truth, yes, he doesn't have that for somehow the big man from Florida has taken that skill away from him. Eeerily like the Outer Limits segment on " How to serve man ".
by all appearances legalized slander is a money maker at Fox.
how Hannity's friends and family are not embarrassed and humiliated by his shtick and his chronic disrespect for good faith reporting I will never know.
It's basically because they believe whatever Fox tells them. I had a republican tell me the other day that, "THANK GOD for FoxNews! Without them, we'd never know what is going on in the world, and how Obama is trying to bring down our country.."
I swear to you all, he said this to me.
Fox is food for wingnuts and results in massive amounts of wasted time correcting the record/facts.
I think you nailed it exactly.
progressive....i thank you for your service.
Robert Gibbs, so far, has been pretty tough on the crap media.
He really should point out some of the glaring lies like this. The president should do the same.
I know it's a distraction, but we can't dismiss the lies. The American people need to be told what is a lie because in many instances, they're not going to be able to get to the truth themselves.
You and the contry are welcome. If I could be I would still be serving.
Right now i would not be able to get privet insurance so i have to live on VA medical the rest of my life. I know many other vets like myself.
What's really funny is, right before this promo came on, the parrot pundits of Fox and Friends stated that the billing of sericemen's private insurance was shot down by Obama.
Nice one Fox.
Technically, Obama had his team review the feasability of said plan. I wouldn't call reviewing all possible options "pushing" for a shift.
Eh, agreed. Except that the original news reports came out weeks ago and the veterans groups roundly opposed it. (A letter of protest was sent to him at the end of February). In the past few days, there was a lot of coverage of it, and the only people who could be found defending it were in the Administration. (To be fair, they DID just say that the idea wasn't off the table). I just think he was late on the uptake, and I think liberals get the "don't support the troops" meme thrown on them way too easily, and I don't see why Obama would walk right into it. Go to the American Legion website and read the comments about Obama if you don't believe me. It's pretty well indoctrinated urban legend in the military that liberal presidents gut military funding, and I wish Obama would have seen how bad it would make him look, and not bothered to publicly review it.
Regardless of how hard he (or any of his advisors) pushed for it, taking away VA care to save $500 million is atrocious, and it shouldn't have received more than a passing glance.
And don't mistake my intentions, I pretty much though the right was gonna have a field day with it. They have become so rabid at the thought of minority status that Obama needs to be in campaign mode 24/7 to beat back the lies.
I realize you're just here to annoy people, and you don't really want to have a measured discussion, but your inflammatory language is really ridiculous. I had the exact same point as you, yet I said it in a way that wasn't over-the-top.
a) MM isn't lying. Obama is no longer pushing the plan. If the promo aired today, the promo is spreading false information, because Obama has denounced the idea.
b) It wasn't really "full speed ahead". It was being discussed, and for lord knows what reason, Obama and Shinseki wouldn't drop it, even after the American Legion and a ton of Congress members spoke out against it.
c) You will find very few people here who will defend Obama to the ends of the earth. I personally was shocked and appalled when I heard this plan (and you're not wrong, it WAS the White House who was pushing it) and it was the first time I vehemently disagreed with the President. But you will find that us crazy liberals will do that from time to time. Unlike you, who apparently thinks the most villified man in our nation has a shot in 4 years.....
It never was full speed ahead on this. I checked with many Veterans groups about it today and they told me that the President's staff asked them to complain to Congress about this. So like the man you are endorsing you are a big fat lier. By the way in recent history the GOP has been pro the military at the same time cutting services for vets while the dems have looked after service members and vets all along. Nice lies by the way.
Unlike Bush, Barack is open to hear constructive ideas from anyone. Obviously someone suggested billing the private insurers and the administration took it into consideration. Veteran groups signaled their displeasure with the proposal and the consideration ended.
like we are al disgusted with you and the crap you spew? why do you even bother.....you know full well you lie at every turn and we call you out for it. and then you also have the stones to call us liars even when we point out your lying......just stop and leave please.
This from the scum who gave us Building 18 at Walter Reed, lied about it and got these men and women shot up for no good reason in the first place for a war of choice they lied us into and botched in every possible way.
The only value the military has to Gops is for photo ops. Outside of that, they don't give a damn about the US Military or the Country.
I wonder who proposed that plan - requiring vets to pay for health insurance.
From Feburary 4, 2009
Congressman Steve Buyer (R) of Indiana:
“An extremely important factor in improving veterans’ access to health care is enhancing its revenue through bills collections from insurance companies,” Buyer said. “I, along with Mike Michaud, Jeff Miller and Henry Brown, introduced bipartisan legislation that was enacted last year to help VA secure hundreds of millions of dollars from third party insurance companies that currently go uncollected.”
SOURCE:
http://republicans.veterans.house.gov/news/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=1671
Could this have been the 'source' of the 'idea'?
Do our elected officials in Congress have to pay for madical insurance out of their salary ?
The plan, now dead, was to push the cost of health care for veterans onto private companies IF a veteran had private insurance coverage, not MAKE veterans get private health care. In any case, it's a dead duck. Get up to speed, GOP slime machine. You're lagging behind the curve...AGAIN.
Randy