Please hear me out and don't flame me. Raising co-pays and deductibles is happening to everyone. It is a huge necessity because it makes a person really think before going to the doctor - the patient has a financial stake in the decision. This is being applied to all medical benefits, including the richest private plans as well as to plans for the poor (Medicaid). All I'm saying is before you pan this decision please read about it and think it through logically.
You’re correct.
The country is functionally bankrupt.
We’re spending 1.40 for every dollar we take in.
Now we can argue about what we should spend the devalued currency on, but it doesn’t change the basic problem.
Were you promised by your company that you’d get “free” healthcare for life if you’d risk your life? The military, especially the 20-40 year retirees were. Apples and oranges, FRiend. Wal-Mart, McDonalds and Apple don’t ask you to invade another country, take a hill, put out fires surrounded by jet fuel or go into villages surrounded by people who want to kill you. See the difference? Sears, Halliburton and the rest of the Fortune 1000 don’t promise to take care of you if you lose a limb or an eye in their service.
BTW, what do you do for a living and have you ever worn the uniform?
but it is not happening to everybody
unions are exempt
federal civil service (union) are exempt
congress are exempt
working age women are guaranteed FREE birth control and abortion
think about that
and before you advise us to go get a job or find a new healthplan, consider this
many of us did work second careers and our employers healthplans, knowing we were vets, insisted we use our vet benefits for primary coverage
this is happening to retirees ages 65+ while union workers who are exempted by cronyism are in their prime and still getting pay raises
not everyone 65+ sees doctor visits as a luxury we can cut back on by making it unaffordable, like it or not the body wears out and some parts just don’t work so good. We don’t go to the doctor frivolously. Do you?
So, you're 21 years old, and you are going to come here and enlighten us all with your vast understanding of veteran's health care.
Got it.
TRICARE is available to retirees. People who have been subjected to conditions that you simply don't understand. Conditions that take a harsher toll on the human body than their civilian counterparts have experienced... conditions that will likely make seeking medical care more frequently a real possibility.
But of course we want that veteran to "really think before going to the doctor". Let's make sure he/she has a "financial stake in the decision".
I recently lost an uncle who died an agonizing death due to exposure to Agent Orange back in the late sixties. His cancer came upon him suddenly, and he had very little time to burn up your precious dollars on his medical care. No one could foresee his situation.
I worry, because in '91 (about the time you were born) I was being forced to take an untested pill every day to supposedly offer some protection against exposure to nerve agents; weapons that my government ASSURED me (mistakenly) that I would subjected to. I was forced to take an injection against anthrax; an immunization that was STILL untested when it was used on troops again right after 9/11. Days were spent living in Kuwait, where the air was constantly black from the smoke of oil well fires, and the soot was in our food and water as well. Days without fresh food, adequate sleep, or even primitive personal hygiene. Never mind being shot at, or being in the vicinity of chemical weapons being destroyed, or clearing vehicles that have been destroyed by rounds made of depleted uranium.
Nah, no reason the troops who have endured those conditions should have any easier (or cheaper) access to a system to keep tabs on their health. Instead, lets jack up the premiums and co-pays so they will really "think" before going to the doctor.
Nobody is whining and crying because unlike my uncle, we were all volunteers. We went with the full knowledge and understanding of the situation we were going into. But we also went with the promise of our government that in return for the sacrifice, we would be looked after with regard to our health.
What are YOU willing to sacrifice, "Mr. Junior Staffer for Santorum"? (Yeah, I read your posting history.) Congratulations.
And it is happening to everyone for one reason: Obamacare.
Repeal Obamacare...and co-pays...and deductibles...and premiums...will retreat to more acceptable levels...for everybody.
I think this guy might be a troll.
Did you miss this part of the article?:
Some reports cite unidentified administration officials as saying that they hope that the increases would put pressure on the retirees to opt out of their veterans benefits and sign up for the program put in place by President Obama's controversial Affordable Care Act which was approved in 2010.
These cuts have nothing to do with whether the government can afford to pay for vets insurance and everything to do with Obamacare. BTW, you sound like a first class liberal. This idiot in the WH has raised spending to levels unheard of before but can't keep vets insurance intact.