Obama Targets Military Health Care

After reading this, please notify your Senator and Representatives to vote 'NO' on this part, if you are against taking even more from our Military. No other job in this country asks you to risk your life for your job!!!! Prisoners get free medical as does the crack heads of this country.......WHY should we take from our Military to enable those kinds of people to have more??????!!!!! This will take away from Active and Veterans of our country.

I believe most of you are retirees or know someone who is and is enjoying the fruit of the sacrifice made, especially the medical benefit.

Pls read what I received from a trustworthy source-- I also went to the Congressional Budget Office site, page 189, to verify the proposed cut in our benefits; the email will tell you how to find it, too-- and we need to start making noise with our congressman and anyone else who can have influence in this. (this is not a forward. I actually researched this myself) My office just got word today that our new President Elect Obama has proposed a plan to cut military health care benefits! This is great news for the 99.9% Veterans and Active Duty members who are currently using health care benefits. The Congressional Budget Office has made public a proposal stating that Veterans (you know the men and women who have fought in wars and spent 20 plus years in the service) are now going to be paying up to 50% of their medical bill. Thats a big jump from paying nothing for the past 30 some odd years.

The biggest kicker is Active Duty Military (yep, I said Active Duty) will now be paying 10% of their total bill. They will now be billed for their kids visiting the doctor. Again, a big jump from being free!

Another benefit subject to change is VA medical benefits. Everyone who is receiving a benefit from the VA for a service related injury will have to be re-assessed and the proposal states this will affect "90% of vets receiving VA benefits and will save the government $53 Billion dollars over 10 years".

Needless to say, today is the first time I have heard from the few Obama supporters in my office say "if this gets passed they will not continue to be a supporter".

Isn't this the candidate that just a few months ago was preaching to get health care coverage too ALL! Isn't it ironic and moronic to steel $53 Billion from vets and active duty military families so the Crack Head down the street will receive free medical coverage.

If your as upset as I am then write your elected officials so hopefully some of the dummies running this country see the light and would never even dream of taking away a penny from a military member!

http://soldiersmind.com/2009/01/07/proposed-tricare-cuts-could-cause-problems-for-military-families-and-retirees/

Below is a message from an Army General who also points out some links and ways how to contact your elected representative.

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.

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.

I don't know how many of you partake of the TriCare 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.

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/

"Now here it is folks and I will guarantee if you sit around on your behind and do nothing about it as they bring these options forward this coming year, you will lose one of the best healthcare benefits that the> Medicare eligible retired military have. It is short of the promises made that we fought so hard for back in the late 90s and early 2000s but it is still the best healthcare program that anyone in the United States has, bar none.

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..

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. chk 6 .. 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.

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 P38 Bob 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.

I wouldn’t dispute that. There are two types of VFW/Legion members; those who want the organizations to promote the interests of service members and lobby for a militarily strong America versus those who want the VFW/Legion to be a kind of military AARP.

“VFW/Legion members; those who want the organizations to promote the interests of service members and lobby for a militarily strong America”

I went to the Oregon VFW Mid-Winter Conference this weekend and had a interesting discussion with the visiting Department of Washington Commander about the CBO study. He is Definitely for the Strong America stance.

The Oregon folks were just as outraged.

Meanwhile.. in Progressive Portland, OR.. area.. the members of the Legion Post I belong too.. act more like the AARP types you described.

FOR ALL OF YOU ASKING FOR A TRUE LINK - HERE’S ONE FOR YOU:

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07647.pdf

If you want to know the truth then follow this link. This was the proposal under former President George W. Bush in 2007 and is something that has been pushed around Washington since as early as 2003. If you want to find some more information for yourself try Googling “tricare proposal” and see what comes up.

Unless someone can prove to me that this information is recent and has been proposed by the very President that is trying to use our medical care system as an example of the health care that should be available to ALL Americans then I will consider it as accurate as all the other propaganda and false information put out there in an attempt to sabotage our President.

Please don’t let these blatant attempts to manipulate you work!!!

I don’t understand the outrage. Even through your own reference, this was a report given to Congress in February 2008. Obama was nowhere near being a President and I don’t think he was even running. The GAO report that helped drive these proposals was in May 2007. Again, they are proposals. Why is this titled as if Obama is going to do it?

I read page 183. The logic seems to be valid, although I don’t think its as drastic. It’s the same problem HMOs have in any system. 22 percent of why people were using the benefits was unnecessary. If you propose a small co-pay, people might actually start using the system more for true health care issues. My problem is that there aren’t enough Tricare-accepting urgent care clinics so that people stop going to the emergency room for paper cuts and fevers.

Via your resource, it does also state the disadvantages of such a cut. People may not do preventive care.

Again, I don’t understand why this says Obama is going to do it, when it’s a proposal that’s been in congress since 2008?

no one pays me anything to do basic internet research. The CBO isn’t even politically motivated. This same story could have came out against any President and the answer would be the same: a proposal from an independent office doesn’t mean the President is proposing it to congress. It coulda been Bush, Reagan..I’m just saying that either way, this is bogus.
How about the VA? What do VA watchdogs thing about the rumor that Obama is proposing this crap?

Here you go:
http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfjan09/nf013109-1.htm

But there I go, using logic to dispell a rumor.

You might be right. Don’t care much. The point is that you used your first post to defend the thing that is now running the country. Enjoy what I’m sure will be a short stay. (dispel, dispelled, dispelling)

no, I am right, and it’s not by my own opinion. I didn’t use the first post to defend Obama; its to defend the system. This could have been titled “Bush to cut vet programs” and I would have done the same thing. Regardless of who does it, it’s still not the president’s policy. What’s wrong with pointing that out, or is this a he-man woman-haters club where if you mention “obama” it always has to be something mean spirited? That’s no better than Nancy Pelosi and her constant “bush is an idiot” and “repbulicans are stoopid” rants. Ridiculous.

I write on many sites and I’ve defended Bush against lies, too. But if the free republic is going to push an agenda, attacking someone who is trying to sort out the truth is like being bullied for not liking pepsi.

I know this has been debunked, and to prove it further would be to pile on, but I’m gonna pile on anyway: It says at one point an “Army” general, then labels the guy, “USAF.”

Gotta keep the lies straight.

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