Veterans groups are skeptical about legislation to overhaul health care, despite efforts from President Barack Obama and Democratic lawmakers to try to allay fears that certain benefits will be taken away or changed under the reform proposal.

the president was not giving veterans the full story, said Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.), ranking member on the House Veterans Affairs Committee.
 
“What President Obama did not say is how the proposed health care reform bill could subject veterans to a 2.5 percent individual penalty tax for failure to have ‘acceptable coverage’ as required by the bill,” Buyer said in a statement.
 
“Despite what the president has said, the bill could still negatively affect veterans and has not been fixed. 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,” Buyer added.
 
Page 167 of the 1,018-page House health care reform bill calls for a 2.5 percent income tax penalty for individuals who are not carrying “acceptable coverage,” but page 172 has language that seems to exempt those who are on Medicare, Medicaid, veterans benefits, and members of the armed forces from paying the tax.
 
Nonetheless, the House Energy and Commerce Committee rejected an amendment by Buyer that explicitly stated that veterans benefits would be acceptable and not be subject to the tax penalty. Read More

We Veterans need to makes sure that the health care bill is read and understood before congress votes on it. Also I for one Veteran will not support a bill that the democrats use the 51 votes to get pass when they have enough democrats without the Republicans to use the standard 60 votes! Come 2010 the democrats will pay highly for ramping this Obamacare bill down the throats of we the people!  Why does Obama leave out things he don’t want us to know about? why does he keep lying to everyone?  Something really wrong with what he is doing to our great Country!  Stand up and be heard now before its to late!