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View Full Version : Tricare for Life at risk. Military Retirees heed


Diesel
11-07-2009, 05:14 PM
PASS THIS TO ALL MILITARY RETIREES
This is true. It is on pages 77, 172, 218, and 434. You have to dig
to see the charges. We (retirees) would lose the Medicare for life
benefit and would have to pay. We would lose TRICARE as a total
care package. We would not be allowed to keep TRICARE so when
Obama stands and says if you like what you have you can keep it,
he lies.
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 healthcare 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/ (http://www.cbo.gov/) a. Budget, Options, Volume 1: Health Care
(www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=9925 (http://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 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.

grandma
11-07-2009, 05:48 PM
Diesel - thank you for this post -
I'm wondering how many of the different military organizations have picked up on it & gotten this info sent out to their members....hopefully the `head honcho' of the VA is getting this circulated...??:suspicious:

nnuut
11-07-2009, 05:51 PM
Yes they are!!!!:mad:
Not many people have talked about what happens if you retire from Civil Service, when you turn 65 and are retired you are MANDATED to join Medicare, at that time your FEHBP becomes your secondary insurance and Medicare becomes PRIMARY. The price of FEHBP is the same. Currently Basic Medicare is $96 a Month and is set to go up in 2010 to $116 a Month. If you are Military Retired I think but am not sure the same happens to your TRICARE. My mother received the supposedly Care for Life before TRICARE, after my father died they changed the law and required her to go to Medicare and pay for it!! Medicare was Primary but she still got her medications free. My mother was PISSSSED!!!!
They already have us where they want us, now they want to take away our right to keep our FEHBP after retirement, NOW I'm PISSSSED! One of the main reasons I went to work was the Health Care Benefits after retirement, now they break out contract that I signed 34 years ago!! PISSSSED!:nuts:

James48843
11-07-2009, 06:20 PM
PASS THIS TO ALL MILITARY RETIREES
This is true. It is on pages 77, 172, 218, and 434. You have to dig
to see the charges. We (retirees) would lose the Medicare for life
benefit and would have to pay. We would lose TRICARE as a total
care package. We would not be allowed to keep TRICARE so when
Obama stands and says if you like what you have you can keep it,
he lies.


I call Bullsh%#!

This ISN'T a bill in Congress.

This is a CBO report outlining possible options.

Where the heck do you guys get all this crap!

Do you even know who CBO is? Or what they do?

They are the Congressional Budget Office:
------------------------------------------------------------
CBO Fact Sheet

CBO's mandate is to provide the Congress with:




Objective, nonpartisan, and timely analyses to aid in economic and budgetary decisions on the wide array of programs covered by the federal budget and
The information and estimates required for the Congressional budget process.

-------------------------------------------------------


They are a research service, not a legislative body. If someone wants to know what effect any particular proposal might have, they give it to the CBO, and the CBO's experts- non-partisan experts-- research, and make objective projections on what any proposal MIGHT do to the budget.

That's it.

Your article is MIS-INFORMATION. Pure and simple.

I call BUNK!

James48843
11-07-2009, 06:29 PM
From that CBO document:

Every two years, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issues a compendium of budget options to help inform federal lawmakers about the implications of various policy choices. Because of the major fiscal and
policy challenges associated with health care, CBO has expanded its work in this area and divided its Budget Options volume into two reports: this first volume focuses solely on budget options related to health care—including financing, delivery, and access—within federal programs
and the larger health care system.

The second volume, which will consist of options not related to
health care, will be released in 2009. In addition, CBO has produced a companion report, Key Issues in Analyzing Major Health Insurance Proposals. Both this volume of budget options and Key Issues are designed to help policymakers better understand the trade-offs and choices inherent in making changes, large or small, to the
American health care system and to federal health care
programs.

That is NOT in the Health Care bill being debated in the House. Those are simply OPTIONS, discussed in that CBO report back in 2008, about things that COULD be considered, and what would happen if they were adopted.

-------------

Those opposed to health care reform will LIE to you.

Those opposed to health care reform will confuse you.

Those opposed to health care reform will do anything within their power to keep things exactly as they are today, even if it means telling you that there will be death panels (NOT TRUE) so that they can keep jacking up your rates, and then excluding you from coverage. THEIR lies will cause you to go bankrupt, while their corporate executives play golf with your money.

EDUCATE YOURSELF. DO NOT BELIEVE THEIR LIES.

grandma
11-07-2009, 06:31 PM
Yes they are!!!!:mad:
Not many people have talked about what happens if you retire from Civil Service, when you turn 65 and are retired you are MANDATED to join Medicare, at that time your FEHBP becomes your secondary insurance and Medicare becomes PRIMARY. The price of FEHBP is the same. Currently Basic Medicare is $96 a Month and is set to go up in 2010 to $116 a Month. ...
.... One of the main reasons I went to work was the Health Care Benefits after retirement, now they break out contract that I signed 34 years ago!! PISSSSED!:nuts:
Thank you, Nnuut -
what is it, that when an individual becomes an Elected Official ( or even an appoint-ee,!!) he/she is suddenly a part `of the Feds, the Government,' and is no longer a part of the Civilian Force?

Then turn around & do all sorts of things that are definately Not For the People, but for The Feds, The Gob'mnt? Is there an elixar they drink at their Inauguration party, or just slipped a Mickey? :confused:

My Mailhandler's has served notice my rate will increase $30/mo, I had not been aware of the amount of the Medicare increase...
Should Pelosi get Her healthbill passed it won't matter - I'll be ineligible for the very things I'll be paying for !!!:laugh:

A lesson late learned from those of the Indian Nations - broken US Government contracts... and yet The Government wants us to think:
We Are the Government!!!
Rinky-Dink and parody vous !!!

(When the Republican congress closed down the Gov't several elections ago, I voted against Every incumbent; should we still have Free Elections in 2012, I will be considering those specific ones, realizing I aided & abetted another mess back then!)

phil
11-07-2009, 06:46 PM
They've got you outnumbered, padnah! The thing is, people can continually cite "facts" to support their case. When these facts are simple inventions, cut out of whole cloth, as we say, things get even more interesting.

It's like the opposition to global warming "science" that seems to pass muster in any posting.

The problem is that the opposition to this plan is very well funded by vested interests in the US, and they can and do continually spew out twisted figures and data to support their cause. It's only a reference to a CBO report on costs, and from this they try to link to a sinister plot.

The opposition had to do a lot of digging to find this in the CBO report, but hardly any effort to create a link. It reminds me of the "death panels".


I call Bullsh%#!

This ISN'T a bill in Congress.

This is a CBO report outlining possible options.

Where the heck do you guys get all this crap!

Do you even know who CBO is? Or what they do?

They are the Congressional Budget Office:
------------------------------------------------------------
CBO Fact Sheet

CBO's mandate is to provide the Congress with:




Objective, nonpartisan, and timely analyses to aid in economic and budgetary decisions on the wide array of programs covered by the federal budget and
The information and estimates required for the Congressional budget process.
-------------------------------------------------------


They are a research service, not a legislative body. If someone wants to know what effect any particular proposal might have, they give it to the CBO, and the CBO's experts- non-partisan experts-- research, and make objective projections on what any proposal MIGHT do to the budget.

That's it.

Your article is MIS-INFORMATION. Pure and simple.

I call BUNK!

James48843
11-07-2009, 09:40 PM
Rep Bob Andrews D NJ just now:

"For those on Tricare- if they are happy with Tricare- then NOTHING changes."

Live on the house floor- 5:37 p.m.

phil
11-08-2009, 12:05 AM
James,

Don't confuse people with the facts. Most people don't want to know the facts, but would rather be lied to. Ref: former President Bush.

That's how we ended up in the soup we're in, particularly funding a completely useless and counterproductive war in Iraq, and an unwinnable conflict in Afghanistan.

Instead, let's just lie to the American people, tell them that we need more conflicts. Maybe we can accuse another country of having weapons of mass destruction and invade. That, or we can just dig a big hole and dump money inside. Government waste.

nnuut
11-08-2009, 02:49 PM
Yes they are!!!!:mad:
Not many people have talked about what happens if you retire from Civil Service, when you turn 65 and are retired you are MANDATED to join Medicare, at that time your FEHBP becomes your secondary insurance and Medicare becomes PRIMARY. The price of FEHBP is the same. Currently Basic Medicare is $96 a Month and is set to go up in 2010 to $116 a Month. If you are Military Retired I think but am not sure the same happens to your TRICARE. My mother received the supposedly Care for Life before TRICARE, after my father died they changed the law and required her to go to Medicare and pay for it!! Medicare was Primary but she still got her medications free. My mother was PISSSSED!!!!
They already have us where they want us, now they want to take away our right to keep our FEHBP after retirement, NOW I'm PISSSSED! One of the main reasons I went to work was the Health Care Benefits after retirement, now they break out contract that I signed 34 years ago!! PISSSSED!:nuts:

They say there are NO CHANGES to Tricare in the Bill, watch your back!!:o
7176

Boghie
11-08-2009, 04:17 PM
You folks have a lot of confidence in politicians :nuts:

I would rather they do practically nothing.

phil
11-08-2009, 04:59 PM
Then maybe we should return to the days of the do-nothings. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil, no. I think that's how we got where we are today, with a depleted treasury, where we're hated and despised around the world, where we've wasted enormous resources with little to show. In fact, where most of the results are counterproductive.

No thanks.