THE END OF TRICARE FOR LIFE FOR MILITARY

Tom Marfiak
Rear Admiral USN Ret.

Sent: Friday, July 24, 2009 8:13 AM

Subject: THE END OF TRICARE FOR LIFE FOR MILITARY
To: All Military Retirees:

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. And 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/_

www.cbo.gov/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 (or copy and paste the URL in your Server's
address block)

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 health care 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 health care 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.
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=20
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.