Military Tricare Hearing

VFW Washington Weekly ^ | 3/18/2011 | Teresa Morris

[katiedidit1]

Military Tricare Hearing: The House Armed Services Committee held a series of hearings this week to discuss the military health system for active duty and retirees. Committee Chairman Joe Wilson (R-SC) asked witnesses their views on where changes can be made to mitigate the increasing costs of military health care. Among those testifying was leadership from all military branches, senior Defense Department civilians, and several military and veterans' service organizations. Much of the discussion centered on proposed Tricare fee increases. The VFW strongly opposes any Tricare fee increase, and believes DOD needs to first reduce Tricare Management Activity infrastructure costs before shifting the burden to beneficiaries. We have asked Congress to support legislation to prevent such increases. You, too, can help say no to Tricare fee increases by sending a message to your legislator at http://capwiz.com/vfw/issues/alert/?alertid=36153521. For complete coverage of the hearing, visit the committee's website at http://armedservices.house.gov/.

[katiedidit1]

http://www.vfw.org/uploadedFiles/VFW.org/VFW_in_DC/WW%20031811.pdf.

[oldironsides]

Thanks. We have TriCare for life.

[MSgt Smith]

I’ve always called it Tri(and get)Care

[kevslisababy]

Geez, three wars now going at the same time...I wonder why costs might be going up. So our military will once again sacrifice for the stupid political decisions.

[katiedidit1]

We do too....Gates feels it has become a heavy burden on the taxpayers. Trying to raise the deductions and eliminate tricare for younger retirees via “means” testing.

[katiedidit1]

Cuts to our military come BEFORE any cuts in foreign aid or bailouts to the undeserving. Obama called the military “the sacred cow”

[BykrBayb]

Thanks for posting this. It’s real important for all military families.

Kathy, do you know who to ping?

[TADSLOS]

I’ve always called it Tri(and get)Care

Pretty accurate. LOL!

[antiRepublicrat]

The name comes from “We’ll ‘try’ to ‘care,’ but we won’t necessarily succeed.”

[MizSterious]

Oh, great. But I suppose illegals flooding our country will continue to get all of their healthcare for free? (By free, I mean to them—the rest of us pick up the tab.)

[American Quilter]

If the government needs more money for TriCare, I suggest it stop providing any fiscal support to illegals. That ought to free up a few billion per year...

[TSgt]

We treat illegal immigrants and lazy welfare recipients better than we do our veterans.

[ops33]

I have been using Tricare Prime since it first was started in the mid-90’s and I’ve never had a problem with them. Of course, I do not go to my local base hospital for treatment. Retirees are the last they want to see. But I have had the same doctor for almost 20 years, he knows me and my wife, I never have a problem with payment, never with prescriptions. This past year I was treated for Prostate cancer and there was a problem with how Tricare was being billed by my treatment facility and what co-payments I owed. But after a few phone calls I was able to get that straightened out.
Now mind you, my wife and I have opted not to seek treatment at the military hospital but rather we use Tricare Prime as an HMO and receive treatment from a civilian physician and that might not be the same situation for you.

[MSF BU]

Identify the cost increases then identify specific line items to eliminate in order to mitigate those increased costs. For instance, if the costs require about $150M more per year over the next 5 years, that corresponds nicely to the National Endowment for the Arts. Eliminate the NEA to fund increased soldier/sailor costs should be the GOP solution. Is it more? Say, $1.5B dollars per year in increased Tricare costs? Fine, that corresponds roughly to Americorps funding: eliminate Americorps GOP, it's really that simple. There needs to be a principled Jesse Helms style conservative to say we're not cutting military health care while wasting it on the Legal Services Administration or whatever.

[katiedidit1]

You are so rational:) that is not in the vocabulary of our legislatures

[Alas Babylon!]

Exactly the same here. I still go to Maxwell AFB to get certain medicines since the price is free. But sometimes the price for gas is more than the drug would cost, so I pick them up locally.

Still, I’ve thought long and hard about this. I retired around the same time you did. When I joined in the 70s I was always told that if we stuck it out for 20 years, we’d get full healthcare for life. It took me years to get over that the govt lied. Yes, I didn’t have that in “writing”. But everyone was saying it back then.

Now I think Tricare Prime is a great deal. I’m glad it’s there. But given that everyone must sacrifice, and there should be nothing left untouched if we ever want to END the budget deficit. And yes, I really do think it should END not just be cut. Because right now, if what we got continues, we’re going to lose it ALL.

The way things are going, if our debt is not solved, we’ll not just lose Tricare, but everything. We’ll have money for nothing. No pensions, no Social Security, no roads, no new fighter jets, no new ships, everything. The government can’t just keep spending money they do not have. They’ve run out of payers into the system, and any attempt to squeeze them further will put them out of business.

That’s why I’m against tax increases for the “rich”. Poor men do not hire people; rich men do. We need to put people back to work. This will only happen when the government mess we’ve got into is solved.

So I’m willing to lose mine so I don’t see us lose it all.

Still, if they’re going to do this, they damn well better get it ALL done.

[Tea Party Reveler]

Thanks for posting this! Done! Yesterday! Cut off the illegals and welfare moochers first before you dare raise my tri-care fees Congress!

[GailA]

Trying to screw the Military again I see.

[GailA]

Just getting at the fraud and corruption would help. Between TRL and Medicare the tax Serf is getting seriously defrauded.

IF you use TRL RX because your Doc ordered it, to buy baby asprin 100 tabs, it’s $9. IF you go to Sam’s its about $9 for 500 tabs.

Since both are paid from the same agency we are doubly screwed.