August 17, 2009
Buyer: Obama Avoiding the Issue on how National Healthcare Reform Legislation could affect Veterans
For more information, contact: Brian Lawrence (202) 225-3527
Washington, D.C. – Ranking Member of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, Steve Buyer, responded today to President’s Obama comments at the National Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) in Phoenix, AZ.
Obama made the following comments in regard to how the national healthcare reform effort would affect veteran’s healthcare:
“And since there’s been so much misinformation out there about health insurance reform, let me say this. One thing that reform won’t change is veterans’ health care. No one is going to take away your benefits, that is the plain and simple truth.”
Buyer responded, “What President Obama did not say is how the proposed health care reform bill could subject veterans to a 2.5% individual penalty tax for failure to have ‘acceptable coverage’ as required by the bill.”
“Despite what the President has said, the bill could still negatively affect veterans and has not been fixed,” continued Buyer. “I will continue to work to ensure that the bill is amended so veterans could not be subject to this tax or adversely affected by any of the other provisions in the bill.”
More information on Buyer’s remaining concerns with the legislation can be found HERE.
More information on the Veteran Service Organizations’ concerns with national healthcare reform, including the VFW, can be found HERE.
For more news from House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Republicans, please go to:
http://republicans.veterans.house.gov/
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