[cranked]

My parents, via my father, have Tricare for life being he served 30 years and did 2 tours in Vietnam. The frak with his or their Tricare, he will go apes**t.

[Myrddin]

My dad served from 1951 to 1977. Korea (USS Randolph, USS Iowa), Vietnam(XO - USS Marshall, USS Prairie. CO/XO USS Arlington) along with XO of 32nd St Naval Station, San Diego (1970-1977). He was also the project officer for the patrol gunboat hydrofoil program (PGH1/PGH2) at the Pentagon. He took a reduced pay check all those years to ensure my mom had the survivor benefit when he died. He's not here to go apes**t. I recall a week when we received calls from U.S. Senators pleading for my dad to sign off on some crappy project. Dad inspected the contractor's work. They literally had 55 gallon drums on the deck to get it to float in a level attitude at the pier. That cost him a promotion to Captain. He was philosophical about it. He said it was OK to retire as a Commander. If he had made Captain, there was always the chance some wise guy would ask Army or Air Force.

[katiedidit1]

We use tricare for life too. My husband did 2 tours in Nam and 3 in Korea. Skelton has done too little, too late.

[GailA]

See post 53

TRI CARE FOR LIFE This from a google search:

http://economicspolitics.blogspot.com/2009/05/tricare-for-life-is-obama-trying-to.html

Option 96 pg 187 (i made page correction)

This option would help reduce the costs of TFL, as well as costs for Medicare, by introducing minimum out-of pocket requirements for beneficiaries. Under this option, TFL would not cover any of the first $525 of an enrollee’s cost-sharing liabilities for calendar year 2011 and would limit coverage to 50 percent of the next $4,725 in Medicare cost sharing that the beneficiary incurred. (Because all further cost sharing would be covered by TFL, enrollees could not pay more than $2,888 in cost sharing in that year.) http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9925/12-18-HealthOptions.pdf

Impact of Medicare Reimbursement Rate Decrease on TRICARE

http://www.tricare.mil

On March 3, Congress passed emergency legislation delaying the 21.2 percent decrease in Medicare reimbursement rates for an additional 30 days. The TRICARE Management Activity greatly appreciates Congress’ swift action as it allowed more time to fully evaluate the impact the decrease in Medicare reimbursement rates will have on the TRICARE program.

Whatever the outcome, TRICARE will take at least 30 days to fully understand the impact on TRICARE and take appropriate action. While federal law requires TRICARE reimbursement rates to be equal to Medicare rates to the extent practical, the law does permit TRICARE to make exceptions to ensure an adequate network of providers or to eliminate a situation of severely impaired access to care.

More information about this legislation and its impact on TRICARE will be posted on the TRICARE.mil website as soon as it becomes available.