End Of TRICARE For Life?
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  1. #1
    Phantom Blooper
    Guest Free Member

    End Of TRICARE For Life?

    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 Office Web
    Site www.cbo.gov/
    a. 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
    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 ret irees 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.

    Remember- TFL is an "Earned Benefit" that's been granted by a
    previous Congress.


  2. #2
    TRICARE USER FEE Update 33: Following is a letter sent by Sen.
    Joseph I. Lieberman to a member of FRA Branch 20 in Groton CT in response to
    his query on the rumored Tricare For Life budget cuts. It is self
    explanatory and should be widely disseminated in the military community:

    February 19, 2009
    Dear Mr. Serabian:
    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. 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 aforementioned 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
    <
    http://lieberman.senate.gov/> ://lieberman.senate.gov
    <
    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



  3. #3
    Until I see an official document on this subject I will continue on with my life and medical problems.

    If nothing official surfaces, all this tells me is that some people are trying to discredit the President.


  4. #4
    I don't think it has anything to do with the President since this rumor started before Obama entered the white house. Although it may have started as another weak attempt to slam Bush but I don't think so. I think it boils down to people overreacting. I think everyone should be involved and track such items since we certainly don't want to lose any benefits that we have more than earned but I also think it's important to ensure things are correct before we spead the word like wildfire. I try to verify things at snopes before I ever forward them. Funny how when I find something to be crap and send it back to the sender they never forward the correction to their address list.


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