Since 01-16-06
More TRICARE Costs Being
Shifted to Retirees
Since 01-16-06
From: Floyd Sears <fsears@bellsouth.net>
Sent: Jan 15, 2006 11:44 PM
To: !CAG/MRGRG e-mail network <fsears@bellsouth.net>
Subject: [MRGRG-MS] [Fwd: More TRICARE Costs Being Shifted to Retirees]
I completed all of the MOAA and USDR action alerts (sent e-mail to my REPs and
my local newspapers) suggested in this e-mail. Please take the time to do the
same.
Floyd Sears
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Fw: More TRICARE Costs Being Shifted to Retirees
Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2006 22:47:09 -0600
From: Harry Riley <hmriley@cox.net>
THERE IS A MAJOR ASSAULT IN THE MAKING BY DOD TO INCREASE TRICARE FEES....THIS
IS NOT JOKE FOLKS........IF WE PARK ON OUR BUTTS THEN ACCEPT THIS MAJOR ATTACK
ON YOUR WALLET.
Harry Riley
The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no
matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the
veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation. -- George
Washington "The bedrock of our very "freedom and liberty" rests on the love of
Christ and sacrifice of our warriors and spouses." ----- Original Message -----
From: USDR Action Alerts <mailto:Legislative@USDR.ORG>
To: COL Harry Riley <mailto:hmriley@cox.net>
Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2006 8:32 PM
Subject: More TRICARE Costs Being Shifted to Retirees
USDR (Uniformed Services Disabled Retirees) More TRICARE Costs Being Shifted to
Retirees
Health Care Cost-Shifting to Military Beneficiaries <
http://capwiz.com/usdr/utr/1/GELLFJRLMX/HZZLFJRLNW/583373421 >
Take Action! <
http://capwiz.com/usdr/utr/1/GELLFJRLMX/HZZLFJRLNW/583373421 >
More Info on the Proposed Increase in Tricare Fees
This provided courtesy of MOAA with remarks by BG Bob Clements (P38Bob)
--
Health Care Cost-Shifting to Military Beneficiaries
http://moaaonline.org/ct/V7qIiB11ZXgh/.
Email This Page to friends or print and give copies to your friends who are
military retirees, active duty, and members of the Reserve Forces. Their wives
and families may contact their members of Congress with the URL furnished at end
of this message.
What Active Duty Members Can and Cannot Do
Can - Register, vote, and express a personal opinion on political candidates and
issues, but not as a representative of the Armed Forces.
I have included, as an attachment, Federal Law (Titles 10, 2, and 18, United
States Code), Department of Defense (DOD) Directives, that states what Active
Duty Members can and cannot Do. There is a lot more leeway than people assume.
There is also a need for the exercise of common sense....
We ALL must get involved and LOBBY as members of the Military Family and
Retirees refraining from irritating members of our own group using political
party affiliations. Lobbying as political partisans will only succeed in
dividing our grass roots efforts. Leave the politics out of it. That does not
mean refraining from the necessity of calling a spade a spade in certain cases,
but abusive language serves no one.
"You wouldn't fire someone who works for you without telling them why, would
you? Or you wouldn't expect them to know what you want them to do unless you
tell them, would you? Well, it's the same way with your legislators. If what
they do or don't do makes you mad and would cause you not to vote for them,
don't you think you have some obligation to tell them what you want them to do
as your representative before you vote against them for not doing it?
"This is a matter of making sure we are able to sustain retention and readiness
over the long term. We're already having recruiting problems, and retention
problems are an imminent threat because today's force is under such tremendous
stress. If we don't take care of the people who serve a career in uniform, we
won't be able to sustain a career force, and we won't be able to defend the
country. This isn't like writing Congress about something going on in your unit.
It's simply people communicating with your own elected representatives and
asking them to make sure they do the right thing by the entire career force,
past, present and future, in the interest of ensuring long-term national
security."
Now, Military People ARE SPECIAL People and should be treated as such. Funding
for benefits of the military that both aid retention and recruiting should be
appropriated in the overall budget requirements of the Department of Defense in
doing their business. That business is to provide for the Constitutional Freedom
of the United States. It takes dedicated and trained special people to use, run,
and support war fighting machines and capabilities. You are now or have been
such people.
STAND UP.....
The following is a paper written by the legislative staff at MOAA. They are damn
good at what they do and are standing up for your rights and benefits as every
other member of the Military Coalition should be mandated to do...
Issue: The Defense budget submission for FY2007 would triple or quadruple some
beneficiary health costs, especially retired beneficiaries under age 65, over
three years, beginning Oct 1, 2006:
Raising $230 single/$460 family TRICARE Prime enrollment fee as high as
$750/$1,500 Raising annual $150 single/$300 family TRICARE Standard fees as high
as $600/$1,200 Prime and Standard fees would be increased annually by medical
inflation, starting in 2009 $3 generic/$9 brand name retail pharmacy copay would
be raised (for all retired beneficiaries and family members of currently serving
personnel) to $5/$15, effective FY2007.
Background: DoD is concerned that rising healthcare costs are competing with
weapons programs. The Joint Chiefs have endorsed increasing TRICARE fees because
they have had this choice forced on them by their political leaders. Defense
budgeteers assume the changes will save money by shifting 14% of pharmacy users
away from retail outlets and causing 600,000 current beneficiaries to exit
TRICARE by 2011. Defense leaders assert such increases are needed to bring
military beneficiary costs more in line with civilian practices.
Discussion: Comparison with corporate practices is inappropriate. Military
medical and retirement benefits must be markedly better than civilian benefits,
since they are the primary offsets for enduring decades of extraordinarily
arduous military service conditions that constitute military members' unique
contributions toward their unique retirement and health benefits.
The proposed increases are grossly out of line with benefit levels enacted by
Congress, even allowing for interim inflation since current fees were
established. Proposed increases would far outstrip annual retired pay increases
and greatly erode retired compensation value. Congress knew enacting TRICARE For
Life would entail significant costs. Forcing under-65 retirees to help pay for
TFL is simply wrong.
Penalizing those who serve arduous 20- to 30-year military careers would be
inconsistent with past congressional action. For the last two years, Congress
refused to accept VA health fee increases for nondisabled veterans who had
served as few as two years. Tripling and quadrupling fees for those who served
20-30 years in uniform would be even more inappropriate.
The Nation has a far greater obligation to military retirees than corporations
have to theirs. In demanding such extraordinary commitments from career
servicemembers, the government assumes a reciprocal obligation to provide
benefits commensurate with their extraordinary sacrifices. This is a practical
as well as moral obligation. Mid-career military losses can't be replaced like
civilians can.
Eroding benefits for career service can only undermine long-term
retention/readiness. Today's troops are very conscious of Congress' actions
toward those who preceded them in service. Reducing military retirement benefits
would be penny-wise and pound-foolish when recruiting is already a problem and
an overstressed force is at increasing retention risk.
Ongoing problems remain with TRICARE. Providers consistently say TRICARE is one
of the lowest-paying plans in the country and imposes administrative
requirements beyond those of other plans. Beneficiaries at many locations have
difficulty finding providers willing to take them.
The country can afford to pay for both weapons and military health care. Today's
defense budget (in wartime) is less than 4% of GDP, about half the
peacetime-year average since WWII. A country that can afford hundreds of
billions in pork and tax cuts doesn't need to make military retirees pay for
weapons.
MOAA Position: Military people already pay larger premiums for their care than
civilians ever have or will - through extraordinary personal and family
sacrifices. Reducing retirement benefits jeopardizes long-term retention and
readiness, especially in wartime. The government should be doing more to improve
TRICARE and promote efficiency rather than shifting more costs to beneficiaries.
Please urge your legislators to oppose these misguided fee increases.
To send a MOAA-suggested message, visit http://moaaonline.org/ct/V1qIiB11ZXgU/
and click on the "Oppose Military Health Fee Hikes" link.
--------------------------------------------------------------
We have not seen the Department of Defense's tactical plan to implement their
threats of shifting medical care costs to military retirees. We have seen only
strategic threats and innuendoes. Up until the plans are revealed, we need to
keep reminding our legislators of our total unacceptance of the Department of
Defense plans to shift the cost of medical care....
However, once those plans are revealed there will be the need of shifting into a full scaled assault on Congress to let them know of our intense disapproval of the Department of Defenses's plan to shift medical care costs on to the backs of military retirees and their survivors..
I have been assured by senior level people at MOAA that once those plans are revealed, there will be one hell of a battle. I would hope that the membership of those other entities comprising the Military Coalition will insist those organizations also come forward with their assurances of joining the fight en force...
chk6 bob
====
Added USDR note -- if you did not TAKE ACTION on the alert just distributed on
the Increase in TRICARE Fees, there is no time like the present to make up for
that omission. Follow this link
http://capwiz.com/usdr/ <
http://capwiz.com/usdr/utr/1/GELLFJRLMX/CPTVFJRLNX/583373421 > and
then select the appropriate alert.
If you do not speak up now, do not complain later when your Tricare fees
increase to the point where you can not afford this "benefit."
Charlie Revie, USDR Legislative Director
If you no longer wish to receive e-mail from us, please click here <
http://capwiz.com/usdr/lmx/u/?jobid=63826227&queueid=583373421 >.
--
Floyd Sears, MSGT, USAF, retired Retired Military Advocate
6733 Riviera Drive Biloxi, MS 39532
E-mail - fsears@bellsouth.net
Home page http://mrgrg-ms.org
Working the Military Retiree Medical Care broken promise issue and the Brown Bag
Project
IF IT WASN'T FOR THE MILITARY--THERE WOULD BE NO AMERICA
To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MRGRG-MS/