In case you haven't heard about this..


This is a "Heads Up" on a battle we are facing now and down the road with the new Administration. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has already drafted proposed legislation that would basically reduce our TRICARE for Life benefits to a system whereby we pay deductibles and co-pays up to $6,301 the first year for you and your spouse, with future years being indexed to increase with inflation.

What can we do? The article below, obtained from an Air Force Association and written by BG Bob Clements, best describes what we can do. Please read it and check the links for CBO language and do what Bob says-Send this email to every Military Retiree you know and write and email your Congressman often. For those of you that might have voted for "Change", you should do it more than often!

TRICARE FOR LIFE'S FUTURE....
TRICARE For Life was instituted to correct the broken promise that military retirees would receive free health care coverage for life and it covers the Medicare co-pay. Now a heavy assault has begun on Veterans'/Retirees' benefits to pay for other programs our President promised during the campaign. An it is a high priority of his administration. The one item of most interest to Retired Military is in Article 189. If approved by Congress the first assault wave would hit 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 (Below) to what BG Bob Clements has surfaced about the future of TFL.

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.

Just another move to slight those of us who dedicated much of our adult lives to the defense of our country.

Strongly recommend that you contact your elected officials and register your strong opposition to the elimination of the TFL program. Heads-up from BG Bob Clements,USAF Ret(P38 Bob) The following has been added to the Congressional Budget Office Web
Site "www.cbo.gov"
a. Budget, Options, Volume 1: Health Care
"www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=9925"

For those who have never opened one of these web sites from OMB :
1. double click on the above URL
2. click on PDF
3. click on the binoculars
4. do a search for TFL

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 ret irees 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.=2 0Now 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.
The service organizations will put up a fight, but, they will need your help and can't do it by themselves. I hope this makes it clear as to what you can expect if you do nothing.

To show you how stupid these professionals can be at times just read the data on the noted sites 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 fan, 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. If you know of anyone who is Retired Military, please forward this on to them.

Remember- TFL is an "Earned Benefit" that's been granted by a previous Congress.

Wray...

Thanks , I have written and I will continue to write, this is a battle we can not loose.

Thanks I have emailed and will call both Senators and Represenative.

When my husband died (he was in the Coast Guard) he left me with Tricare for life. I'll notify the congress person I have "DON'T DO IT"
THANKS

Wray - I will post my responses from my Senitors and Represenative once they get back to me. I hope more of us keep reaching out to our shipmates.

If you look at the date of the CBO document (December 2008), Obama was not in the White House yet.

On the issue at hand, TRICARE has been on the eye of congress for a while now. We have been lucky that the issue was brought up during election year and was turned down. With the rising costs of medical care around the nation and the percentage of DoD’s budget that is spent on health care, some changes to the TRICARE programs are pretty much guaranteed. I hope the Military Coalition and other lobbying groups are able to fight congress, and if some additional costs are placed on the TRICARE program, they are the absolute minimal ones because it will affect us all. I believe TRICARE is an “Earned Benefit”, but under the current US fiscal conditions it may not be sustainable for too long. We need to keep putting the pressure on congress to get their attention.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jemcheme,

I wrote both Senators last night. I hope they get the message

Before everyone goes to GQ, this is old news...do a search for "MOAA Tricare for Life" and read what this report is all about (no fee increases or benefit reductions from President Obama, just options from the CBO for reducing spending!). Still something to be concerned about.

While I may not go to "GQ" I can't stress how important our medical benefits are... both on Tricare standard, Tricare prime (which I have, and Tricare for life...

We need to preserve these benefits.. Just a quick example.. since I got the bill today.. my wife had surgery for a disk in her neck.. the operation bill was $47K... that is FORTY SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS... our portion of the bill was $13.00... I think we may get a $30.00 hospital bill...

Why in the world wouldn't you want to do everything you could to preserve these benefits?

Wray...
P.S. Hi Jay....

Another thing Wray...I haven't seen Obama's plan yet, but he may be taxing you and active duty personnel for your employer provided health care benefits to pay for everyone else's government rationed health care plan.

quote:

I believe TRICARE is an “Earned Benefit”

Too bad the government is now leaning more and more towards the belief that it's in-kind compensation and taxable as such. Yes it's a great plan and we'll soon know exactly how great when we see the dollar value the government assigns to it.

I'm not sure I'm going to be able afford this "earned benefit," and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank good old Mumbles McCain for showing Obama the way forward on this one. Thanks a million you jackass!