If you need any further proof that a National Health Care system is needed as never before, look no further than the voting booth in November. Because as it sits now, nothing is going to change before then nor will it change at all, as long as Republicans hold the White House.
Before to long retiree's will be paying as much for health care as the private sector......the goal is to get us to quit using tricare and then eventually eliminate it.
I was laid off several years ago, at the age of 55. I got a modest severance package, I applied for a number of jobs, but was not hired. I finally got work thru a temp agency with does not offer any medical or dental coverage. I rely on TriCare. I will have to stick with TriCare no matter what happens until I am 65, which fortunately is only 4 years away.
The Military Coalition, a lobbying conglomerate made up of military-linked organizations such as MOAA, NCOAA and others, has been fighting these proposals for years - successfully, I might add. There are also congressional proposals to make fee increases in TRICARE, TFL permanently illegal, instead of just delayed.
Frankly, during an election year when the country is still at war, I don't think these increases have much of a chance - too much potential for political backfire when the entire House, a third of the Senate and the Executive Branch are up for election.
Nevertheless, it pays to be vigilant and keep your own congresscritters on notice.
Health care costs are a national problem, in the military, for vets, and the general population. However, these tricare changes are a slap in the face to military members and their families who are making the main sacrifices for this country. When we are fighting and straining the military while cutting taxes to the top earning individuals and companies something is out of wack. Multi million dollar bonuses to executives, of insurance companies, while forcing the people who protect our pay more is wrong. It is time for the rest of the country to make some sacrifices.
Please tell me of any other occupation that requires its employees to pay their own way to a war. As a military retiree, I always found it so ironic. We pay taxes, therefore, our own tax dollars are used to place us in harm's way.
I certainly hope that each of you don't simply reply to this group. Please take a moment and write your political representatives and let them know that any decrease of benefits for the active, reserve, and national gaurd, etc. is a gross mistreatment of the armed forces.
I second the motion! Or, as an alternative, abolish Tricare and let the former Tricare members use the same insurance as the government employees.
I believe that this would also be a viable alternative to the VA for veteran's routine and catastrophic medical care.
Currently, the VA provides minimial or no emergency medical services in many of it's locations, and has very limited capabilities to provide much more than custodial care for homeless and mentally challenged veterans.
quote:
Originally posted by daithi: They could make all gov employees from the Pres on down the line use tricare and only at VA facilities. See how they like it.
Chuck, I think that's the ultimate goal: put all the military and retirees in the FEHBP, like other feds. FEHBP providers are the usual suspects: Kaiser Permanente, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Aetna, etc., and the premiums, while lower generally than in the non-fed sector, are still well above TRICARE fees, even TRICARE Prime.
That's too much of a compromise for me to stomach. I'd like to see (but never will) a return to full benefits at MTFs, with fully-staffed medical departments in each service branch. Bush the First brutally cut healthcare provider end strengths in his last two years in office, a policy not rolled back by Clinton, while BRAC has made it harder and harder for many servicemembers - active, reserve, Guard or retired - to access the military medical care that was part of our original contract with the government.
Originally posted by Cider33Alpha: Chuck, I think that's the ultimate goal: put all the military and retirees in the FEHBP, like other feds. FEHBP providers are the usual suspects: Kaiser Permanente, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Aetna, etc., and the premiums, while lower generally than in the non-fed sector, are still well above TRICARE fees, even TRICARE Prime.
That's too much of a compromise for me to stomach. I'd like to see (but never will) a return to full benefits at MTFs, with fully-staffed medical departments in each service branch. Bush the First brutally cut healthcare provider end strenths in his last two years in office, a policy not rolled back by Clinton, while BRAC has made it harder and harder for many servicemembers - active, reserve, Guard or retired - to access the military medical care that was part of our original contract with the governmnet.
I agree. The days when a fully staffed hospital could be found on every post are long gone ... shrunk and converted, for the most part, to clinics. We still use a clinic ... but anything more challenging than a hangnail gets referred out.
I don't mind the referrals. At least in our area, they have worked well for us. What I do mind is that medics/military nurses aren't getting much in the way of training ... no surgery, no minor procedures, not much of anything. Doesn't help build medical skills for field/combat operations.
I have to disagree with you there, Jade Gate - they get plenty of training, and many, if not most, of those in medical MOSs have been in the sandbox in one capacity or another.
Not to mention field training annually, medical/nursing continuing education, required courses if one wants to be promoted, etc. If I were an 11B or Marine grunt, I'd be quite comfortable with the level of training of my medical support team.
Originally posted by Cider33Alpha: I have to disagree with you there, Jade Gate - they get plenty of training, and many, if not most, of those in medical MOSs have been in the sandbox in one capacity or another.
Not to mention field training annually, medical/nursing continuing education, required courses if one wants to be promoted, etc. If I were an 11B or Marine grunt, I'd be quite comfortable with the level of training of my medical support team.
I'll bow to your greater experience ... can only speak to what I see at the Ft Rucker clinic (pulse, bp, wt, temp) and sitting at a computer checking in patients and what my daughter experienced ... basic ... ait ... a clinic in Korea ... a clinic at Ft Jackson ... then working trauma in the Baghdad ER. She did fine but the learning curve from giving shots, drawing blood, and treating VD to assisting with open heart resuscitation, amputations, etc was pretty darn steep. Military hospital ERs used to provide a little of that experience as well as a much larger pool of doctors and military medical personnel to draw on in war.
I went through the same thing during VN - I spent three months on a plastic surgery/urology ward prior to going to VN. The doc on that ward had recently returned from VN, and recognizing that I was a rookie with a capital R, he made me do every possible procedure we did on that ward. But the learning curve when I got to VN was very steep.
It's not that different from line troops who are in the field ad nauseum, but that first time under fire is a whole different story.
I hope your daughter adjusts well AND that she teaches what she learned to those who have not yet been - that's the one thing that kept me in the military for so long.
I hope your daughter adjusts well AND that she teaches what she learned to those who have not yet been - that's the one thing that kept me in the military for so long.
Thank you ... she's adjusted fine though when she visits us and a stray OH-56 overflies our house during night training out of Ft Rucker, she still rolls out in subconsicous response to an incoming MEDEVAC. She and her military RN husband are in San Antonio now ... a place I imagine you are quite familiar with. They move to Ft Lewis/Madigan this summer where he will do the second half of the nurse anesthesiologist course, followed, I expect, by another tour in Iraq or A-stan.
I know this is an “old song,” but how many of you remember being told, “If you stay for 20 and retire you will receive free medial care for life?” At least that was what I was told in 1954 when I enlisted.
Yes, I know there have been law suits and all of them have been trown out and I know that Tircare and Tricare for Life (with Medicare part B) is still cheaper than nothing many people are paying. But it’s still not what was promised.
Here are a couple of definitions for you: Tricare, “Just try and get care.” -or- Tricare, “Three ways the government cheats you out of what they promised you.
Let’s all work for, look for, hope for and pray for an HONORABLE VICTORY and a SAFE RETURN home for our MAGNIFICENT GIs, at the earliest possible date, to a beautiful green-and-blue living planet for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren!
At least that’s the way, IMN2BHO, this old soldier and proud Coast Guard dad sees it!
A listening ear, a caring heart, an open mind and an extend hand may be all I can offer, but they are yours without charge or judgment.
Originally posted by OldArmyWOPA: I know this is an “old song,” but how many of you remember being told, “If you stay for 20 and retire you will receive free medial care for life?” At least that was what I was told in 1954 when I enlisted.
Yes, I know there have been law suits and all of them have been trown out and I know that Tircare and Tricare for Life (with Medicare part B) is still cheaper than nothing many people are paying. But it’s still not what was promised.
Here are a couple of definitions for you: Tricare, “Just try and get care.” -or- Tricare, “Three ways the government cheats you out of what they promised you.
Let’s all work for, look for, hope for and pray for an HONORABLE VICTORY and a SAFE RETURN home for our MAGNIFICENT GIs, at the earliest possible date, to a beautiful green-and-blue living planet for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren!
At least that’s the way, IMN2BHO, this old soldier and proud Coast Guard dad sees it!
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I'm a Vietnam Era Vet who used the VA health care for nearly twenty years but now can't get any benefits on account of being re-classified as a " non-priority veteran".I also retired from the Army Reserve but can't get Tricare because I'm only 53...I also retired last year under a Kentucky state pension plan..and though the premiums are currently paid by the state , the co-pays and deductibles are simply outrageous.I had surgery to repair a torn tendon last fall but just couldn't afford the costs of rehab.I'm still making payments on last year's medical bills and I didn't spend a single day in hospital.
If you've got Tricare , enjoy it while it lasts.I'm doubtful I will ever receive any more medical coverage for any of my military service.
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