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Posted on 07/25/2011 9:02:12 AM PDT by markomalley
Active Duty/Retiree Ping.
Good post.
Thank you.
I agree with you Colonel, and I take exception to Senator Coburn’s following statement. “Nobody in the country, as a single person working 20 years for the government, should be able to get health care for $250 a year. Nobody was ever promised that, and nobody should be able to do that.”
With all due respect to the senator those who served in the United States Armed Forces for 20 years most certainly should get health care and yes we were promised that.
It truly sucks, our Navy base is a pencil pusher, and no hospital, no docs for retired. These are part of the benefits a career Military man or woman were PROMISED to keep them in 20 years who work for below national average wages for all those 20 years.
We are having a hard enough time finding docs that will take Tricare/Medicare now. And at 71 multiple health issues you don’t just go out and find a job that has medical benefits.
Now the gov’t wants to renege on it’s promises...because we have bailed out to many other countries, to many banks, car plants, and illegals, and all this green and homosexual agendas.
And it is administered out of the SAME office.
0 is wanting to cut 3,000 CPO’s. What is he wanting to cut man power wise from the other branches. These mid ranks are the glue and training of the young enlisted.
I agree with you 100%. But then we are dealing with a Military hating Marxist.
I also retired an use Tricare Prime. To me it’s just another example of trusting the government and finding out it is untrustworthy. I was promised free healthcare for life if I did my twenty and that was a pipe dream well before I retired. Keep trusting the government to take care of you and you’ll end up.....about where the country is headed right now.
I’m a retired submarine COB getting along on medicare/tricare for life and would not appreciate this great an increase in cost. The term Tricare-for-Life indicates that the government owes it’s military retirees healthcare for their entire life. Now they want to renege? That said, I wouldn’t mind some shared sacrifice (but not to the extent the senator proposes) if the government was really serious and did the same for themselves and at the same time eliminated all the freeloaders in our system first. For all you bubble heads out there, remember this – WE DO IT DEEPER because WE HAVE BIGGER BALLS! For all you non submariners that means we serve underwater and when we’re home we enjoy taking our better halves to the Submarine Ball.
“Almost 50% of tax filers do not pay any income taxes instead get a check from the federal government.’
And the IRS even spent money on radio ads to alert people who hadn’t filed that they might be eligible for stimulus checks.
I am retired LtCol, USAF.
I have Tri-Care like every other retiree but I also have private medical insurance from a major blue-chip company.
Excellent coverage that the company is looking at dropping completely. Reason? Obama. It is cheaper to drop my coverage and pay the one-time fine than to keep the coverage.
I use Tri-Care as secondary payee. Like doing that because my current coverage allows me greater freedom than options than Tri-Care, too include not having to go through that ridicules “referral” system if you need top see a specialist.
For example, foot problem, must make appointment with Tri-Care doc (at least a week or so wait, maybe a lot more), then see the doc who says, “yup, you need to see a foot doc.” Then contact the Tri-Care selected foot doc specialist to make an appointment. . .another few weeks wait.
Nonsense.
Under my current coverage I pick the doc I want, go where I want, next door or 1,000 mile away, be seen quickly for non-ER illness, no worries. . .except Obama wants to take that care and freedom away from me.
Have congress cut discretionary spending in real terms for 2-yrs with no tax increase, then let's talk.
Two thoughts on this.
First, I lost all real trust in the government keeping their promises when they changed around the retirement system back in the 80s. It's like they always say, if it ain't in writing on the contract, don't believe it. After that point in time, I recognized that any promises we are made are contingent upon, not only the Congress that is in power at the time of our enlistment, but all future Congresses.
Second, when I first retired, I used insurance from my employer. And I realized exactly how expensive it was. Frankly, even with the changes Coburn is proposing, Tricare (Standard) is so dramatically much cheaper than any competitor I've seen, there is no comparison. I'm just thankful that they are not proposing cutting it off wholesale (I was concerned that the 111th Congress would have done that and said, "you can go to the Obamacare insurance exchange").
Don't get me wrong, I don't like the thought of paying more for prescriptions. I don't like a higher deductible (I'm on Tricare Standard, so the annual premium doesn't apply to me). But I also know that this is partially responsible for the debt. And while I don't want to be the only one having to suck it up, I know that if everybody agrees that everybody else needs to suck it up and I am unwilling to do part, then I don't have a very strong case.
Do you need directions to your local recruiters office?
Until then, I'm not interested.
Uhhhhh....I hate to break it to you, but Tricare for life is a relatively recent program (2001). Prior to that, they shucked 65 y/o retirees on Medicare, as CHAMPUS/TRICARE stopped at age 65.
I don't know about triple or quadruple. Double is enough for my taste.
But that's the idea. I don't mind having, once again, to suck it up...provided I'm not the only one.
+1
At that time, your “free healthcare for life” will start costing you MEDICARE premiums (part A/B) and will be means-tested, so if yu have another job or are still working, MEDICARE may may start costing you over $2000 a year in MEDICARE premiums (as ours do, since we still work ... AND pay MEDICARE tax .... AND pay MEDICARE premiums ... and that's for one of us)
Them you will also pay your deductible for the secondary insurance, TRICARE for life (which is now $150 per person, $300 per family but calculated on TRICARE permissible charges which are waaay lower than what doctors charge
I know my family of four uses TRICARE for Life (and one of us uses MEDICARE) and we pay several thousand a year in doctor bills and medication costs after insurance...plus of course, our unwelcome retirement gift from Uncle of MEDICARE premiums costing approx $2000 a year.
One kid needs a specialist and we can't find any doc within 50 miles who takes TFL. The referring doc (who we paid $2500 cash to see) said “no one takes TFL because it doesn't pay enough”
Medications alone now cost us almost $1000 per year.
So, our “free healthcare for life” promised by our employer, actually costs us about our 4rd greatest expense after mortgage and taxes, and utilities.
Dental is another $1200 per year, plus paying the excess not covered, Thank God the kids have good teeth.
This is now- Coburn is talking about raising this
I bet he has no personal experience with real retired military people and uses the hypothetical example that a family is getting all their medical needs for $460 a year. The press manages to find such people, no wonder they are all jiggy with raising the rates.
Horse crap.
Well, we'll take Coburn’s medical plan. How about that? I bet he even has a special phone line to Bethesda, sure would be nice to know we could get in there..
In exchange for 49 years of military service between two of us, I think we should qualify, Mr Coburn.
As we both know, if there was any seriousness about cutting the deficit, they would be looking at cutting 500-750 Billion from the 2012 budget - except, of course, the Senate hasn’t even passed the 2011 Budget.
All this talk about cutting $1,000 Billion over 10 years is phooey! It won’t happen. In 2009, the CBO was forecasting the 2011 deficit at half of its current size, so their projections mean nothing - even IF future Congresses honored them!
This is just a chance to go after the military. It has no connection to actually doing anything about the deficit. But if they want to look at trimming the 2012 Budget by $750 Billion, then they are welcome to look at my health benefits.
Nope.
And I figure they are going to renege on paying my retirement check in the next few years. So all of this will be irrelevant. I have heard talk about cutting retirement pay for those under 62 (so neither of you two would be impacted).
I am just thankful for what I've got. And I don't count on having it tomorrow.
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