Military Retirees' Tri Care for Life at Risk

congression budget office ^ | Unknown

[Magnum44]

For those of you who are covered by TFL you will want to pay attention to what BG Bob Clements has surfaced about the future of TFL.

If you know of anyone who is Retired Military, please forward this on to them.

I don't know how many of you partake of the Tri Care for Life program but here is a very interesting note on the subject. Seems as though our President Elect has placed a priority on cutting it out of the budget as a means to provide funding for those things he promised during the campaign.

In any case, on page 189 of the Congressional Budget Office report, see the note below on how to get to that spot, there is a strong recommendation to eventually eliminate the program as it is too expensive. I would ask that you contact your elected officials and register your strong opposition to the elimination of this program. Just another move to slight those of us who dedicated much of our adult lives to the defense of our country. Thanks for listening.

Heads-up from BG Bob Clements, USAF Ret (P38 Bob) The following has been added to the Congressional Budget Office Web Site http://www.cbo.gov/

a. Budget, Options, Volume 1: Health Care http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=9925

For those who have never opened one of these web sites from OMB : 1. double click on the above URL 2. click on PDF 3. click on the binoculars 4. do a search for TFL.

Subject: FW: Tricare for Life's Future Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 09:14:10 -0800

To All,

This is for real. The heavy assault has begun on Veterans'/Retirees' benefits to pay for other programs. The word on the street is that these indeed are a high priority of the Obama administration. The one most of interest to Retired Military is in Article 189. If approved by Congress the first assault wave would hit the beaches in 2011 and would hit hard. It would initiate cost sharing to require retirees to pay the first $525 of medical cost and 50% of the next $4,725 for a first year cost of $2,888 per person. It would be indexed to increase with inflation. A reason given for this action (for PR effect) is "overuse" by Retirees.

Clyde

People who are professionals always look for the channel of least resistance when it comes to cutting money out of the Federal and DOD budget. I can tell you this straight on, military retirees are one of those channels of least resistance noted for sitting around, doing nothing, and waiting for ole Joe to do it for them. You had better wake up. Your medical benefits are prime target. If you lose them, you have nobody to blame but yourself. Let me repeat that ... you have nobody to blame but yourself.

The way to secure your benefits is to write to your members of Congress and to keep writing and writing and writing. ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH!! Keep repeating the above statement until you are blue in the face.

Now I'm going to make one more statement to all of you younger people out there who are not yet eligible for Tricare for Life. HEALTH CARE WILL EVENTUALLY BECOME THE DOMINATING FACTOR IN YOUR LIFE. Remember that . . . . it will impact you big time with the utmost in cruelty unless you are fortunate enough to die from a heart attack . . . or get run over by a truck.

Now, I am going to attach AGAIN exactly what OMB has in store for military retirees using TFL. This source is directly from OMB and is not something that I have dreamed up. They are telling you exactly what they are going to do with your benefits. If you do nothing, this is what you will get.

The service organizations will put up a fight and are aware of this and will put up a fight but, they will need your help and can't do it by themselves.

I hope this makes it clear as to what you can expect if you do nothing.

To show you how stupid these professionals can be at times if you will read the attached document closely you will see that in spite of the MTFs (Military Treatment Facility) need to get patients back to keep their doctors busy and the hospitals from going to clinic status, these people from OMB would employ a means to keep retirees from using MTF facilities by charging them a fee for services. How dumb can you get.

Even if you are an Obama lover, and believe that changeth cometh, TFL option from OMB will not go away. They need the money they spend on you for other programs for people who produce nothing but votes to keep their boss in office. chk6 .. bob"

==================================================================== ==== A footnote: BG Bob Clement is known with affection as"P38bob". He flew P38s in WWII. He was one of the stalwart warriors that led effectively from the front when the hard battles were being fought to bring Tricare for Life to reality. I was honored and pleased to a player in that effort by following P38 Bob's lead. (in those days I was known as MilVet99)

MilVets: it looks like we will again be confronted by the 'attack of the beancounters' who, by and large, wouldn't know (and probably never will know) genuine unselfish service to our country and are solely motivated by crunching numbers so that those numbers will reflect favorably on their bosses and their boss's causes. They have no thought to the havoc they would cause . . . in many cases the loss of any amount of TFL benefits would be a an insurmountable hardship ..... and to some it would truly be a death sentence.

It is well that we gear up for the fight now. As P38Bob says, we must write, write, write and write. Once is not enough! In time I will be preparing letters for your use in writing to your elected officials and submitting them to the TREA Membership, and to others who may want to join the fight.

Them Beancounters haven't seen anything until they've see a united and angered group of MilVets. Lets do it and git 'er done!!!!! Your comments and inquiries are welcome.

Fred Langston, President (2008), Legislative Affairs Chair, Greater San Diego Chapter 128, The Retired Enlisted Association (TREA), fglangston@yahoo.com

[Magnum44]

Sorry if this is already on a thread but this is a subject that I just think many vets (and friends of vets) need to be aware of, if not already. This was brought to my attention by an email so I havent looked at all the details yet myself, but the subject is a major concern...hope this is useful

[Danette]

thanks for the info.

[skr]

ping for later

[Cap Huff]

Bump for later read.

[squidly]

I guess O wants socialized medicine for everyone but veterans.

[Jet Jaguar]

Ping.

[notpoliticallycorewrecked]

Thanks for the info. I will be forwarding this to many interested parties.

[OldTCS]

Thanks for the heads-up! Our benefits have been under attack for a long time. Tricare itself was a way to get retirees to start paying for medical care they had already been promised for life. Without any action on my part, I found that I had been enrolled in Tricare Standard (lowest benefit level). If I wanted to actually be able to make an appointment instead of waiting forever on standby, I would have to upgrade to Tricare Prime (basically an HMO), and start paying for it. Now there is talk of doubling the yearly cost, since it's ‘so low’ compared to civilian programs. Apparently they don't factor in the price already paid by serving 20, 30, or more years.
They need to be introduced to the term ‘obligation.’

[null and void]

ping

[dcwusmc]

Roger that. It’s another Obamanation ahead for us. But the Courts say it’s OK for the government to lie to US and break its promises... but NEVER try that with one a them silly-vilian welfare queens!

[freema]

PING

[Jet Jaguar]

Thanks. Since old Tonk passed, I did not know who to ping for retiree news.

[just-brad]

bttt

[FreedomCalls]

I guess O wants socialized medicine for everyone but veterans.

Ain't that the truth.

[BuckyKat]

Bump to save.

[zeaal]

Thanks for posting. Impacts my mom!

[zeaal]

There is irony in this statement, "An advantage of this option[cost sharing by TFL participants] is that greater cost sharing would increase TFL beneficiaries' awareness of the cost of health care and promote a corresponding restraint in their use of medical services. Research has generally shown that introducing modest cost sharing can substantially reduce medical expenditures without causing measurable increases in adverse health outcomes."

Okay ... so the question begs to be asked ... how is this applied to socialized medicine?

[Jubal Madison]

Thanks for posting. This affects my father-in-law. Veterans shouldn’t have to speak up for themselves. It seems to me America should speak up for them. We owe them. If you are a vet, all I can say is thank-you, and those words don’t begin to cover it.

[cherry]

the entire federal and state pensions and medical plans are unsustainable...it might have been okay when people lived into their 60's..but people live longer now, and just like SS and Medicare, there is no money to pay for this.....

If I, a nurse for 30 yrs, can pay about $7000 a year in premiums for my husband, I suppose the federal employees can cough up a little more, even the military retirees......

I was promised a pony when I was kid and never got it......who can I sue?

my husband was promised a nice pension and medical retirement package for both of us, but his company went bankrupt, he lost his good pension and any medical.....

and who does he sue?

[ONEBYEONE]

And I’m sure you served 4 tours in Southeast Asia and being exposed to chemical agents, such as Agent Orange. And now that we are aged Veterans with all kinds of medical problems, were have to take out health insurance? Your “pony” analogy is insulting.