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*Thank You To All Donors*
Posted on 10/19/2011 7:48:47 AM PDT by OldGoatCPO
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The top lawmakers on the Senate's defense panel on Friday recommended that a special committee searching for ways to slash the deficit consider some of President Barack Obama's proposed changes to health and retirement benefits for the military. In separate letters to the bipartisan panel, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., signaled they were open to cost-saving steps in military benefits, recommendations that have already attracted fierce opposition from powerful groups of retired officers and veterans resistant to change. The Pentagon's health care costs have skyrocketed from $19 billion in 2001 to $53 billion, but lawmakers and various groups argue that members of the military and their families sacrifice far more than the average American, with a career that includes long and dangerous deployments overseas that overshadow civilian work. Health and retirement benefits help attract service members to the all-volunteer force. Levin and McCain said they would support establishing an annual enrollment fee for TRICARE for Life, the health care program that has no fee for participation. Obama had proposed an initial annual fee of $200.........
(Excerpt) Read more at theledger.com ...
Good stuff, and well put. Going after the pensions of loyal soldiers is criminal. Enough to make one weep.
“So, I now must find another pharmacy that WILL take Tricare - or order my prescriptions online.”
This was always the plan. In the next few years I predict most or all of the commercial phramacies (Walgreens, CVS, etc) will drop support for TRICARE. This is by design. The Pentagon WANTS everyone to go mail order. In their opinion (not sure if its fact) it costs less. That its not at all convenient or timely isn’t really their concern.
I can use the Naval Hospital pharmacy if I need to, but the wait for the initial Rx fill can be two or more hours and they don’t accept drop-offs.
Well said
You are right. As retired vet with a substantial disability rating I will always be cared for. It is my wife and one remaining dependent child that are in jeopardy.
As unpopular as reform of military retirement benefits may be, I’m convinced it it is necessary. Personnel costs are eating up a steadily increasing share of the DOD budget. This is unsustainable. We may need to transition to a partial draft system even as we pare back military retirement benefits.
The other thing that people don’t realize is that we PAY for our spouses benefits. It’s not a government freebie.
The latest Obama ally determined to gut the military. When´s McCain coming out?
Thank you, Conor. He was a Marine all the way!
There has been no increase iun retired military pay since the Democrats took over two years ago. There has also been no increase in VA disability for two years. Social Security recipients received a $500 dollar bonus each year for the past two years. Obama has announced that he wants social security pay to go up by 3.6% this coming election year. No mention of increasing military retirement or VA disability payments. Federal government workers have not had their pay frozen. It is clear that the Democrats will screw disabled veterans to find money to pay their inner-city voters.
In my opinion McCain is an elitist son of a bitch who must be voted out of office.
PLEASE NOTE THAT EXPRESS SCRIPTS ADMINISTERS MEDICARE, TRICARE FOR LIFE, BC/BS-—1 IN 3 AMERICANS RX’s. WITH THE MEDCO BUY OUT IT WILL BE MORE LIKE 1 IN 2. They are not nice to deal with either if you have to go ‘off their formula’ for a medicine.
Hate to be the bearer of more bad news Yorkie, but 0 is going for an additional $200 next year, on top of this year’s co-pay increases, and $295 for 2013. Plus Medicare is raising it’s insurance cost.
VFW Call to Action
Stop Balancing Budget on Backs of Military and Veterans
http://vfw.org/News-and-Events/Articles/VFW-Call-to-Action/
The individual letters signed by Levin and McCain were far more ominous, because they both agreed with proposals President Obama announced last month to create a commission to examine the current military retirement system, and to alter military TRICARE benefits for those retirees age 65 and older. The president also wants to increase pharmacy copayments for military dependents and retirees of all ages, but both senators suggested the proposal needs further DOD review.
Regarding the military retirement system, Levin wrote the commission should expand its scope to “encompass all aspects of military compensation, including the current system of basic pay, allowances (including the housing allowance), special and incentive pays, and health care, as well as the tax treatment of the various components of military pay.” Levin also agreed with the president’s proposal to institute a $200 annual fee for military retirees age 65 and older who are enrolled in TRICARE for Life, but he would link future fee increases to the percentage amount of a retiree’s annual cost of living adjustment. The president’s proposal has no such linkage, and if approved as is, TRICARE for Life fees would rise from the recommended $200 in 2012 to $295 in 2013. This would be in addition to Medicare Part B payments they must already pay.
Want even scarier stuff, just the headlines is enough to scare the c out of me. Express Scripts covers 1 in 3 Americans! Medicare/Tricare, along with BC/BS are their largest clients. After the scandal plagued Medco $29 BILLION buy out, it makes them even larger. And a lot of that buy out money was tax $$.
NOTE: the BREACH of security for Tricare, which the MSM has been mum about!
More fees for TFL
http://militaryadvantage.military.com/2011/10/more-tricare-fee-increases-proposed/#ixzz1ZlQSUoZi
Tricare breach
http://www.moaablogs.org/healthcare/2011/10/tricare-data-breach/
Express Scripts
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/21/us-expressscripts-idUSTRE76K1GG20110721
Thu Jul 21, 2011 5:50pm
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Express Scripts Inc will buy rival Medco Health Solutions Inc for $29.1 billion, creating a U.S. powerhouse in managing prescription drug benefits that is sure to draw antitrust scrutiny.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/express-scripts-to-buy-medco-for-29-billion/
Express Scripts said Thursday that it would buy a smaller rival, Medco Health Solutions, for $29.1 billion, becoming the biggest pharmacy benefits manager in the country in one of the largest deals of the year.
http://www.workforce.com/article/20110722/NEWS01/307229995
Express Scripts Inc. said on July 21 that it plans to buy its largest competitor, Medco Health Solutions Inc., for $29.1 billion, representing a seismic shift in the pharmacy benefit management marketplace.
This is the article with some of the best details.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-21/express-scripts-agrees-to-purchase-medco-health-solutions-for-29-billion.html
Express Scripts Inc. (ESRX) agreed to buy Medco Health Solutions Inc. (MHS) for $29.1 billion in the largest deal in at least a decade among U.S. companies that manage prescription-drug benefits.
Buying Medco gives St. Louis-based Express Scripts the scale to become dominant among companies that handle drug benefits for corporate and government clients.
http://www.pharmacyweek.com/job_seeker/profiles/profile.asp?location_id=63042
Express Scripts is one of America’s largest pharmacy benefit managers with 12,000+ employees and servicing more than 50 million people across the United States and Canada. We’re the people behind the prescription card in your wallet.
As one who served at the advent of the all volunteer force, I am vehemently opposed to bringing back the draft in any form.
The only way I'd go with a draft is if there were no deferments, no way for the elites to buy their way out of it.
Be very aware that your mail ordered meds, can and will be changed at the whim of ES, you will NOT know from which country they come from either. And sensitive to heat or cold meds can sit in the mail box all day.
Our Co-pays went up on 10/1/11.
What ES did to Walgreen’s they will in turn do to other drug chains as their contracts come due. Offer them 1/2 cents on the $1.
My pharmacist takes the time to go over each RX my doc orders, and we have caught some mistakes. My pharmacist knows which drugs I am allergic to.
ES doesn’t and doesn’t give a flip if you are allergic to a generic or even a name brand, they just give you the CHEAPEST drug they can find, from the cheapest source even if it is Chinese made.
Why do you think we are having drug shortages? These fair trade agreements are bring inferior RX drugs into the country, and we are in turn shipping them back. Then we have to hope what few drug companies in the USA can make up for the shortages.
Do you know how military retired pay is handled? How much does it cost each year?
Not all of us got that $500, I know we sure didn’t and hubby’s Navy pension has been hit by over $500 in NEW taxes, while our income has decreased due to the OBAMA DEPRESSION/INFLATION.
Unless you have served in the Military personally you do NOT know the hardships they go through. They work for sub par pay, and spend months away from their families, get shot at, killed, or maimed, or come back with PTSD. And live in conditions in war zones even the poor in this country don't endure.
I've washed fatigues in the bathtub, along with diapers when there was no money for the washomatic place. I date myself with those cloth diapers.
There are places in the DOD budget to cut, the pay and benefits of the Troops is NOT the place. Cut the congress critters pet project that is in the DOD budget. They hide a lot of them there as they know it is a must pass budget.
Let them CUT THEIR OWN PENSIONS FIRST!!
And then CUT the pensions of federal workers, next!!!!
And don’t forget to cut Presidental Pensions too!!!!
Them first!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And no, I am not military, nor is my husband.
Read the article.
I agree. As a federal retiree myself, changes to federal retirement benefits (whether military or civilian) should apply only to new entrants into the federal workforce. That’s only fair to the current workforce, who have factored the existing benefit structure into their retirement planning.
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