A Harry Riley
pass-along
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: General Peter Pace, Chairman of Joint
Chiefs of Staff Supports "Renorming" TRICARE
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 22:16:21 -0600
From: Harry Riley
<hmriley@cox.net>
I watched a portion of
the Senate Armed Services Committee
testimony today, featuring Secretary of
Defense Rumsfeld, Joint Chiefs
Chairman General Pace, and Army Chief of
Staff, General Peter Schoomaker. The
committee chairman is Senator John Warner of
Virginia.
General Pace had kind
words for our military families and the
positive impact they are making and the
sacrifices they endure. Then he hit
military medical care head-on, making a case
for the "unanimous approval by the Joint
Chiefs" of DoD and Administration TRICARE
Fee increase proposal.
General Pace never
stated or discussed the real impact of the
TRICARE changes or as he called it,
"renorming" TRICARE. A new buzz word,
"renorming" TRICARE....another name for
smoke and mirrors.
He described the
general increase in healthcare nationwide,
announcing that corporations, government,
small business, et. al. were encouraging
military retirees to use TRICARE, relieving
private business from paying employee
insurance. He used figures in the Billions
to describe TRICARE healthcare increased
costs, as has Winkenwerder and Chu in DoD,
to justify adding the "budget saving"
responsibility on the troops, as if the
troops caused the increase cost of
healthcare in the nation. Battlefield
performance is not enough, military retirees
are expected to subsidize the "pork trough"
to keep greedy politicians happy.
It's not so much what
General Pace said, it's what he didn't say
that leaves a sour taste and
reflects disingenuous testimony. General
Pace conveniently omitted the guts of
the TRICARE fee increase,
discussing only
what wouldn't change...He stated the "renorming"
action would not impact active duty troops,
would not impact military retirees over
65 years of age, and would have no impact on
the catastrophic cap ceiling of $3000...all
the warm fuzzies but ignoring the downside.
What General Pace
omitted was the fact that all military
retirees under 65 years of age would
see "new" TRICARE Standard enrollment
fees; omitted the significant increases in
TRICARE Prime and annual deductibles, nor
saying anything of the increases in the
pharmacy program. In short, the Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff chose the
politically correct road, told the committee
what they wanted to hear.
It's obvious DoD and the Administration is
firmly committed to the TRICARE fee
increases. The only hope is to raise our
whimper to a roar in the ears of Congress.
That means calling your Representative and
Senators every day or two and registering
opposition to TRICARE fee increases.
Here's how to call toll free:
Use
1-866-877-4455
(courtesy of Enlisted Army National Guard
Association of the
US)
or 1-866-272-6622
(courtesy of the Military Officers Association
of America)
As my friend Bob Geasland says "we're on our
own troops". Take action now or pay for it
later...and please, please, don't cry or
whine if you choose to let it happen.
Harry Riley, COL, USA, Ret
--
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
Update Tracking System -
http://mrgrg-ms.org/educate-the-congress.html
Look at Tracking System Data -
http://mrgrg-ms.org/cgi-bin/educate-the-congress.cgi
Enter data in Record Book -
http://www.efreeguestbooks.com/mg/guest.pl?27625:9:0
Look at Record Book data -
http://www.efreeguestbooks.com/mg/multi.pl?27625:9:0
FAX a REP -
http://mrgrg-ms.org/fax-it.html
Working the Military Retiree Medical Care broken promise issue
IF IT WASN'T FOR THE MILITARY--THERE WOULD BE NO AMERICA