Tom Coburn’s cuts: Military’s Tricare Prime health care program targeted

[tpsbmam]

Source: Washington Post

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) wants to cut taxpayer funding for non-military elements of the Defense Department, starting with making retired, uninjured service members pay more for what he described as “extremely low-cost health care for life” for themselves, their spouses and dependents under the Tricare Prime system.

For military retirees eligible for Medicare, he also wants to raise the co-payments that they are charged to be in Tricare for life, the second payer for health care after Medicare. In addition, he wants to increase low fees that Tricare beneficiaries pay for pharmaceuticals purchased at their local drugstores.

Former defense secretary Robert M. Gates proposed raising Tricare Prime enrollment fees for single retirees from $230 a year to $260 a year and fees for retiree families from $460 a year to $520 a year. Coburn wants the fees to be much higher and more in line with private-sector health plans.

Part of his concern is fairness, first for uninjured veterans who, for example, served in Iraq and/or Afghanistan but “leave the military without serving 20 years are not entitled to any of these health-care benefits.” They represent some 70 percent of those serving, according to Pentagon officials.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/tom-coburns-cuts-militarys-tricare-prime-health-care-program-targeted/2011/07/20/gIQAtZl6WI_story.html

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"More in line with private-sector health plans." Translation: let's see what other "little people" we can sacrifice so we can maintain all of the goodies for the wealthy & our corporate co-conspirators.

[Solly Mack]

1. I'll be sure to pass this around my community.

[TwilightGardener]

2. Um...stay in for 20 years, get retirement benefits. Don't stay in for 20, don't get them.

How is that not fair? My husband's been in the military almost 20 years now--it's not an easy way of life. We EARNED those benefits--or will have earned them when he retires. Fucking asshole.

[TwilightGardener]

6. Oh, and not to worry--Rush will get on the air and tell his numerous military listeners

to be grateful to Mr. Coburn for treating them like "equals" and making them pay as much as civilians, especialy after they've been promised their entire careers to receive low-cost health care in retirement.

[haele]

8. Thing is, you can't get Tricare unless you've retired or are eligible for disability retirement.

That is, done the 20 years and got an honorable or general discharge. Tricare is not easy to get into, and there's a lot of eligibility requirements that need to be met.

If you're a reservist and retire, you're not eligible until you're 60 years old and have a letter of eligibility to boot.
Your children are only eligible for Tricare until they're 21 and lose their military dependent's ID. It doesn't matter if they're in college, once they lose that ID, they're off Tricare and need to find something else.
And if your spouse divorced you, he or she loses Tricare as soon as you divorced; your children can still be eligible if 1) you have joint custody or 2) your spouse has full custody and you are required by the settlement to carry them on your medical insurance - until your spouse remarries. Once your spouse remarries, your children are no longer eligible unless you have joint custody with them.

He also seems to be mistaking Tricare with VA eligibility with that "don't need to serve 20 years" comment. And even then, he's got an erroneous view of VA care.
You're only eligible for VA medical if 1) you have a service-related disability or 2) are a qualifying veteran (24 continuous active months) with an income under poverty and no other available health insurance (if you're eligible for COBRA or Medicaid, they won't see you) and they have the ability to see you - as in, there's beds or room available. And it's an emergency. You cannot use VA as your primary medical care unless you are a qualifying disabled veteran or you are a qualified military retiree or current Reservist/National Guard member and there is no other facility within a reasonable distance to your residence.

Your family does not get seen in the VA unless you're a disabled vet and there's no Tricare available to them.

Mr. Coburn has no idea what Tricare really is. IMO, all he apparently sees is uppity peasants who are getting something "free" they didn't "deserve".

Haele

[TwilightGardener]

10. I think he understands Tricare, but like you said he acts as if retirees are

getting something they don't deserve. This is just a continuation of their belief that NONE of the rabble should receive ANYTHING from the government, even if they earned it spending 20 years moving their families every other year, living in combat zone hellholes and forgetting what their kids look like. I can't believe, though, how many current active duty military and retirees still vote Republican. It's like voting for a swift kick in your ass.

[southernyankeebelle]

12. I just got on the phone with Coburn's Office and gave them hell about

it. I told her my husband was in and retired after 22 yrs and he earned this benefit. I also told him when he first signed up the line they were pushing was free healthcare for life. To be honest we stayed to get the benefits. Many people stay for the programs.

ALL YOU MUST CALL CONGRESS AND SENATORS

[TwilightGardener]

18. Thank you! I showed my husband this article, with the intention that he

will spread it around. Yes, we were promised free healthcare for life too (he joined up before Tricare). Edit to add, I think it's very telling that Coburn wants to make retired military pay close to what civilians pay--like you say, many hang on and put up with extreme difficulty and heartache for those "special" military retirement benefits (I know my husband is), only to have Coburn saying their service really doesn't merit it in the end. Sickening.

[atreides1]

3. I only served 13 years

And I don't begrudge those vets who stayed in until retirement having access to Tricare...to me it's fair that a retiree gets more, they stuck it out...and should receive something for their service!

Coburn is so concerned about being "fair" maybe he should start by providing all Americans the same type of health care that he and other federal employees have access to...

[ej510]

4. Medicare for everyone solves this problem.

[Doctor_J]

5. Dear Mr. President, please run to a microphone,

tell everyone about this, and then declare it unacceptable. and don't say "both sides are to blame" in the next sentence.

[demigoddess]

7. one thing that a lot of people do not understand is that

most military retirees are not as well off as civilian retirees may be. Moving around, low pay while in the military and sometimes health problems as a result of years in service keep the retirement years from being the dream most republicans seem to think it is.

My credentials to know these things? my father fought in WWII and Korea, my dad fought in Korea, both died young because of their service. I was raised as a military brat. We were pretty poor during my growing up years, I would be surprised if my dad retired with more than a month's pay in his pocket. My husband was in 25 years. When we retired we didn't have a lot in the way of savings if I recall correctly. Most of what we have now has been earned since we retired and settled down..

[southernyankeebelle]

14. I totally agree with you. Both of our parents and my husband all retired

from the military with over 20 yrs. Our dad's both served in WWII Korea VN and my husband was in during the Iraq war. My husband was able to get his degree while in the military. When he retired he wasn't able to get a job in his field. He didn't have the experience. Both of us worked a full time job and a part time job plus my husband was going to college for over a year to save $5000 to put a down payment on a double wide trailer to put next door on my in-laws property. They gave us an area of land.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Not just that, they are a collection of preexisting conditions

that make them ineligible for private insurance.

[sce56]

9. He is like Sen Simpson

Simpson said that group of people that never had to endure combat did not deserve Tricare! Well I'm sure serving in Congress is just as hazourdous as serving in the military! Yet he gets Health care for life serving in congress!
Here is how one retiree pu it when they started charging us for TriCare

Consider this:
What would you do if you made payments on a house for 20 years under what you thought was a contract only to discover that the contract wasn't authorized and the house isn't yours? What would you do if the people that sold you the house closed the house and told you that you could not live there anymore?

Would you fight for what is yours, or would you just roll over and play dead?

Now consider this:
What would you do if you served for 20 or more years in the military being told that if you served until retirement you would receive free medical care for yourself and your eligible dependents at military treatment facilities for as long as you or they lived only to discover, via a court ruling, that the promise wasn't authorized and the government reneges on the promise? What would you do if you were told that you could not use the military treatment facility where you had been receiving medical care for years, and you had to go on Medicare and pay for Medicare part B just like the average citizen that never served a day in the military?




"Promises of lifetime medical care were made to military officers by military officials for more than 50 years. Likewise Congress knew, or certainly should be charged with knowing, how the billions of dollars it appropriated for military medical care were allocated and that the amounts it appropriated for military pay were diminished by the imputed value of medical care on active duty and after retirement. Congress is presumed to know the terrain against which it legislates. To suggest it was oblivious, that it did not know military officials were promising medical care in accordance with its appropriations is pure sophistry. If it were otherwise, if Congress can appropriate billions for this aspect of national defense and not know how it is accounted for, then God save the Republic. Of course Congress knew; of course the service secretaries authorized promises in return for service; of course these military officers served until retirement in reliance; and of course there is a moral obligation to these men: it is called honoring the contract the United States made with them and which they performed in full. Because the court countenances the government’s breach of the implied contracts and its taking of the rights vested in these retired servicemen, I dissent." Reference http://mrgrg-ms.org/f99-1402.html#conclusion2

[gratuitous]

17. There's an episode of "Futurama"

Bender gets mixed up in a get-broke-quick scheme with Calculon. Calculon's wary about it, but finally tries to pin Bender down by saying, "And you guarantee this will win me the Oscar?" Bender replies, "I guarantee you anything you want!" Pretty much the same rule applies to this gang in Congress under the Republican banner: Give us X* NOW, and we'll give you Y** when you retire (or at some unspecified date in the future). So, you hand over X, but when you come looking for Y later, not only have the promises vanished, but the Republicans will call you greedy and selfish for wanting them to deliver on their half of the bargain.

Who wouldn't want to keep playing that game? All the reward, none of the risk!

*X being years of your life, a portion of your income, or whatever it is they want.

**Y being some pie-in-the-sky promise of health care coverage, old age benefits, or whatever it is they think you want.

[russspeakeasy]

11. Just in case you have read any of my replys about Tom Coburn

and were confused about my feelings toward him... He is a lying fucking prick who got rich stealing money from U.S. taxpayers. A total waste of skin. That should clarify my feelings.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Hey Tom, what about those vets who LEFT the service AFTER

20 years and ARE vets of Iraq and Afghanistan and ARE handicapped you ass.

BTW, you idiot... TRICARE should be the model for SINGLE PAYER and the private system should go away.

[southernyankeebelle]

15. I agree it should be that way for all.

[dgibby]

19. Thanks to TRICARE,

I no longer believe or trust my government. The day it was implemented was the day I went from being a moderate to being a leftist, and from being gung ho to just marking time until I could retire. I did my job, but I never again tried recruiting anyone to join the military. Whenever anyone asks me my opinion about joining, I tell them if they so choose, they should understand that their so called "contract" with the govt isn't worth the paper it's written on. The sad part was that I loved the Navy, but I never felt the same again.