| Author | Message | ||
     Nevrenuf |
my brother inlaw just sent this to me about those who stuck around and retired from the service. their about to get screwed from our new commander in chief it seems. read on. Military Retirees' Tri Care for Life at Risk congression budget office ^ | Unknown Posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 1:00:33 AM by Magnum44 For those of you who are covered by TFL you will want to pay attention to what BG Bob Clements has surfaced about the future of TFL. If you know of anyone who is Retired Military, please forward this on to them. I don't know how many of you partake of the Tri Care for Life program but here is a very interesting note on the subject. Seems as though our President Elect has placed a priority on cutting it out of the budget as a means to provide funding for those things he promised during the campaign. 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. I would ask that you contact your elected officials and register your strong opposition to the elimination of this program. Just another move to slight those of us who dedicated much of our adult lives to the defense of our country. Thanks for listening. Heads-up from BG Bob Clements, USAF Ret (P38 Bob) The following has been added to the Congressional Budget Office Web Site http://www.cbo.gov/ a. Budget, Options, Volume 1: Health Care http://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. Subject: FW: Tricare for Life's Future Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 09:14:10 -0800 To All, This is for real. The heavy assault has begun on Veterans'/Retirees' benefits to pay for other programs. The word on the street is that these indeed are a high priority of the Obama administration. The one most of interest to Retired Military is in Article 189. If approved by Congress the first assault wave would hit the beaches 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. Clyde 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. Now, I am going to attach AGAIN exactly what OMB has in store for military retirees using TFL. This source is directly from OMB and is not something that I have dreamed up. They are telling you exactly what they are going to do with your benefits. If you do nothing, this is what you will get. The service organizations will put up a fight and are aware of this and 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 if you will read the attached document 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 lover, 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. chk6 .. bob" ================================================== ================== ==== A footnote: BG Bob Clement is known with affection as"P38bob". He flew P38s in WWII. He was one of the stalwart warriors that led effectively from the front when the hard battles were being fought to bring Tricare for Life to reality. I was honored and pleased to a player in that effort by following P38 Bob's lead. (in those days I was known as MilVet99) MilVets: it looks like we will again be confronted by the 'attack of the beancounters' who, by and large, wouldn't know (and probably never will know) genuine unselfish service to our country and are solely motivated by crunching numbers so that those numbers will reflect favorably on their bosses and their boss's causes. They have no thought to the havoc they would cause . . . in many cases the loss of any amount of TFL benefits would be a an insurmountable hardship ..... and to some it would truly be a death sentence. It is well that we gear up for the fight now. As P38Bob says, we must write, write, write and write. Once is not enough! In time I will be preparing letters for your use in writing to your elected officials and submitting them to the TREA Membership, and to others who may want to join the fight. Them Beancounters haven't seen anything until they've see a united and angered group of MilVets. Lets do it and git 'er done!!!!! Your comments and inquiries are welcome. Fred Langston, President (2008), Legislative Affairs Chair, Greater San Diego Chapter 128, The Retired Enlisted Association (TREA), fglangston@yahoo.com if you disagree with this please contact your congressman. our retirees need it. | ||
| Bill0351 |
The following is from the Reserve Officers Association. James Siscel Jan 14, 2009 Tricare for Life not on Chopping Block A viral e-mail campaign is unsettling military retirees over 65. Sourcing a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, these e-mails claim that TRICARE for Life is at risk. These distress warnings are overstated. The report, on Budget Options, Volume 1: Health Care lists 115 options for reducing federal spending on health care, altering federal healthcare programs, and making substantive changes to the nation’s health insurance system. But these are not formal recommendations. The suggestion for TRICARE for Life is only Option 96 on the list. None are formal recommendations. A total of six proposals of the 115 might affect military health care. Other options include increasing health care cost sharing for family members of military personnel on active duty (Option 95); increasing health care cost sharing for military retirees under age 65 (Option 97); and copayments and changes to enrollment for medical care provided by the Veterans Affairs Hospitals for enrollees without a service-connected disability (Options 28, 29 and 98) The CBO report is a periodic report made every two years. The last such report was published in February of 2007 when CBO provided 250 budget cutting options to Congress on altering federal spending and revenues, of which health care and Medicare changes were a part. What was unusual with this year’s health care report was that it was published in a separate volume. ROA would like to thank those members who brought this report to our attention. The Reserve Officers Association is concerned with legislation that might affect the military health readiness, and deny earned health benefits and will continue to track this issue. ROA leadership has been in discussions with other military and veteran associations and the consensus is that currently there is no serious risk. At this point there are no fires needing to be put out. | ||
| 2008xb12scg |
not right. I don't think if you are hired to any company (or military) and promised a retirement plan they should be able to change it. HEALTH CARE WILL EVENTUALLY BECOME THE DOMINATING FACTOR IN YOUR LIFE} | ||
| Bob_thompson |
I did not vote for the current administration but when they got in I decided to give them a fair chance for success and got somewhat behind them. That has changed in just two short weeks as I am seeing just what direction they are taking. I'm getting scared at what they might do. It seems to be back to the same old agenda. More spending in the wrong areas, more government and less freedom to choose for ourselves. Its a shame when you loose trust in someone right after getting to know them. This is of course IMHO only. Army 1960-1963 SP4-E4 retired long ago. Thanks for the heads up. E-mailing my congressmen today. Bob (Message edited by Bob_thompson on January 28, 2009) | ||
| Thesmaz |
As an active duty MSgt who will be retiring in a few years this is something of great interest to me. I'm a Air Force Sergeants Assoc member and will be sure to get his to our chapter Pres so he can get the word out. | ||
| Edgydrifter |
You guys do realize that this report and list of recommendations was prepared by guys working for the PREVIOUS administration, right? This email started going around before Obama even took office. The email refuting the email went out before he took office. I'm sure the current prez will do plenty of things to p!ss off any number of us on a whole range of issues--I suggest we concentrate on those, and not ones actually done by the guy who just vacated 1600 Penn Ave. | ||
| Greenlantern |
You guys do realize that this report and list of recommendations was prepared by guys working for the PREVIOUS administration, right? This email started going around before Obama even took office. The email refuting the email went out before he took office. I'm sure the current prez will do plenty of things to p!ss off any number of us on a whole range of issues--I suggest we concentrate on those, and not ones actually done by the guy who just vacated 1600 Penn Ave. What? Facts? How Dare you!  | ||
| F_skinner |
Thesmaz: Thanks for your continued service as one MSgt to another. It's important to understand that this book of options is nothing new. CBO puts out similar lists of options at the start of every Congress, and previous option books have included similar proposals. Some of the cuts were, in fact, put in the Bush administration's annual budgets, but they were rebuffed by Congress every year. Second, these are options put forth by CBO, not recommendations. We should be concerned and the AFSA, VFW, DAV, CPOA and MCL are activly watching this as they do at the start of every new congress. It's a complete unknown at this point what the new President might put in his first budget proposal to Congress. With the nation in such a deep economic funk and skyrocketing annual budget deficits as far as the eye can see, every area of the national budget will be coming under scrutiny for possible cutbacks. With the nation at war, there remains considerable sensitivity in Congress to imposing additional penalties on the military and veterans community that already has borne such a disproportional share of the nation's wartime sacrifice. |
