via Sean Hannity Discussion by Mike Griffith on 3/4/12
Vets, have you heard what Obama wants to do to your medical benefits? You won't like it. The only part of the federal budget that Obama is willing to genuinely cut is defense spending, and if he succeeds, we vets will pay the price. For example, even if your military pension is under $23,000 per year, Obama wants to nearly double your Tricare enrollment fee (i.e., your Tricare premium) and also to increase the amount of your co-pay. If your military pension is over $45,000 per year, your Tricare premium will quadruple over the next five years, if Obama gets his way. And, if you're one of those vets who can't even afford Tricare Prime and who therefore uses Tricare Standard, Obama wants to raise your deductible (http://www.vfw.org/News-and-Events/A...H-WITH-TROOPS/). One recent article, titled "Trashing Tricare," sums up Obama's anti-vet bias well:
The Obama administration’s proposed defense budget calls for military families and retirees to pay sharply more for their healthcare, while leaving unionized civilian defense workers’ benefits untouched. The proposal is causing a major rift within the Pentagon, according to U.S. officials. Several congressional aides suggested the move is designed to increase the enrollment in Obamacare’s state-run insurance exchanges. (http://freebeacon.com/trashing-tricare/)When Obama was trying to sell his extension of the payroll tax holiday, he argued that to a lot of families an extra $40 or $60 per month is a big deal. And, true, to some families an extra $40 to $60 each month is a big deal. But when it comes to low- and middle-income vets, Obama doesn't mind doubling your Tricare premium and raising your pharmacy co-pay by 80% to 250%. For instance, if you receive a near-poverty-level military pension, Obama wants to charge you an extra $35 a month for your Tricare, and if you need a prescription or two, he wants to sock you for an extra $10 to $50 per month. I guess Obama's concern for "struggling low- and middle-income Americans" doesn't apply to low- and middle-income vets. Even worse, Obama's goal is to eventually abolish Tricare and to force all vets to use Obamacare:
The administration's admitted objective to Congress . . . is "to force military retirees to reduce their involvement in Tricare and eventually opt out of the program in favor of alternatives established by the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare." (http://news.yahoo.com/obama-thanks-m...235100402.html)Specificaly, here's part of what Obama is proposing as far as Tricare enrollment fees and co-pays: * Proposed pharmacy co-pay costs for a one-month supply of retail drugstore prescriptions are set at $5 for generic drugs and $12 for brand-name medicines in fiscal 2012, and will rise over time to $9 and $34, respectively, in fiscal 2017. * For mail-order three-month prescriptions, those costs begin at being free for generic drugs and $9 for brand-name medicines, and rise in fiscal 2017 to $9 and $34. Defense officials noted that nonformulary drugs -- those not on the department's list of standard medicines -- often are not available in retail pharmacies and have higher mail-order co-pays, ranging from $25 in fiscal 2012 to $66 in fiscal 2017. * Under the tiered system, retirees younger than 65 enrolled in TRICARE Prime will pay a minimum enrollment fee of $460 this fiscal year, rising to $893 in fiscal 2017 for those receiving less than $22,589 in annual retirement income. Maximum TRICARE Prime enrollment fees, charged to retirees receiving more than $45,179 in annual retirement pay, are set at $460 to $520 this year and $2,048 in fiscal 2017. (http://www.woundedwarrior.af.mil/new...p?id=123290368) How's that for "keeping faith with the troops"?! Mind you, we're talking about a benefit that many vets were told would be free when they joined the military. I joined the Army in 1982. One of the recruiters' big selling points was that if I did 20 years in the military I would receive "free healthcare for the rest of your life." Then, several years after I joined, Congress up and decided that military retiree healthcare would no longer be free--but at least the fees were quite modest, and so most vets didn't grumble much. But now along comes Obama, who wants to jack up veterans' healthcare costs dramatically. We should also keep in mind that funding for veterans benefits is authorized in the Constitution. So Tricare funding is entirely constitutional.
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