Posted by
Gabrielle Cusumano on Tuesday, March 03, 2009 1:05:16 PM
"...our new President Elect Obama has proposed a plan to cut military health care benefits! This is damning 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!
FINALLY WE ARE GETTING SOME ATTENTION FROM THE U.S. SENATE (USUALLY THEY SEARCH THE SUBJECT AND SPEND NO TIME READING WHAT IS BEING POSTED ON CONSERVATIVE WEB SITES)
From: Retired O-6
Subj: Obama Targets
Please 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!
Here are some links to article.
Feel free to Google if you're in dis-belief.
Below is a message from an Army General who also points out some links and ways how to contact your elected representative.
Subject: FW: TriCare for Life's Future
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 09:14:10 -0800
To All,
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.
If you know of anyone who is Retired Military, please forward this on to them.
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.
Thanks for listening.
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/
a. Budget, Options, Volume 1: Health Care
(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. 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..
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 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. (Excerpted) More at: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/2185271/posts
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Tricare Correspondence From Senator Lieberman
I think this may clear things up on the TRICARE scare.
February 19, 2009
Mr. Mark Buxton
1250 Farmington Ave Apt C23
West Hartford, CT 06107
Dear Mr. Buxton:
Thank you for contacting me regarding rumored cuts in benefit programs for military retirees, including TRICARE for Life. Currently, a wealth of false and misleading information is being distributed on this matter; and I welcome the opportunity to explain the source of the confusion.
I am aware of several chain emails, online discussion boards, blogs, and even articles in well-intentioned veterans' publications that imply that President Obama and Congress plan on eliminating TRICARE for Life. The insinuations put forth by these sources are false.
The source of these stories is a report issued by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), entitled Budget Options Volume 1: Heath Care, released in December 2008 http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=9925
Before jumping to conclusions about the report itself, however, it is important to know exactly what the CBO is. CBO is a nonpartisan federal agency, tasked with providing Congress with cost estimates for the many legislative proposals considered each year. It also periodically offers Congress suggestions for adjusting federal spending. CBO is an information gathering body for Members of Congress. Its recommendations about the budget are completely non binding; and its officers do not draft actual policy, legislation, or law.
The Budget Options report in question offers a total of 115 options for reducing (or, in some cases, increasing) federal spending on health care, only three of which relate to TRICARE. These options are merely suggestions, not policy statements or actual legislation. Reports such as this one are routine, and very few options or recommendations made by CBO are typically acted upon. President Obama has not indicated support for the three recommendations in this report related to TRICARE, nor has any Member of Congress, to the best of my knowledge. Any suggestion that the Administration is affiliated with this report ignores the fact that it was drafted by the CBO - which, again, is an advisory body of the legislative branch, not the executive branch.
You may also be interested to know that both the Reserve Officers Association (ROA) and the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) have issued statements condemning the aforemention ed rumors that are being perpetuated through these chain emails.
I hope that you have found this letter informative, and I encourage you to share this information with members of your community who are concerned about issues relating to military retirees. As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, please be assured of my continued commitment to protecting the various interests of all those who have fought tirelessly to protect our cherished freedoms.
Thank you again for sharing your views and concerns with me. I hope you will continue to visit my website at http://lieberman.senate.gov for updated news about my work on behalf of Connecticut and the nation. Please contact me if you have any additional questions or comments about our work in Congress.
Sincerely,
Joseph I. Lieberman
UNITED STATES SENATOR