Please pass on to all your military retired friends so they can be
educated on how the "health care reform" will change our tricare
benefits. Read article at very bottom of e-mail string for more
information. v/r 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 OfficeWeb Site
www.cbo.gov/
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
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. 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
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. Bob Remember- TFL is an "Earned Benefit" that's been granted by a
previous Congress.
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE
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