Obama sends DoD healthcare cuts to Congress
Our president, who owes all of his policy successes to the military, has sent a bill to Congress that will increase our healthcare premiums several times over the next five years. In a link that several of you sent me over the last few days from the Washington Free Beacon (sorry I didn’t use it sooner, but I didn’t trust it until I saw Bill Gertz’ name attached to the article), the Obama Administration admits that the reason they want to jack up the costs is to force veterans into Obamacare;
Administration officials told Congress that one goal of the increased fees 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.
“When they talked to us, they did mention the option of healthcare exchanges under Obamacare. So it’s in their mind,” said a congressional aide involved in the issue.
So where are those brainless turds who told me four years ago that no one would ever raise healthcare costs on veterans? I remember dicksmith telling us how good Obama was for veterans and our healthcare system. And Paul Rieckhoff is too busy getting his petition signed for a parade through New York City that will pass by his office to give a tiny rat’s ass about veterans’ healthcare.
Significantly, the plan calls for increases between 30 percent to 78 percent in Tricare annual premiums for the first year. After that, the plan will impose five-year increases ranging from 94 percent to 345 percent—more than 3 times current levels.
According to congressional assessments, a retired Army colonel with a family currently paying $460 a year for health care will pay $2,048.
The new plan hits active duty personnel by increasing co-payments for pharmaceuticals and eliminating incentives for using generic drugs.
Active duty people will get hit as well. That makes complete sense. So those drugs you’ve been getting for PTS, are going to cost you now.
Where is Dave Rehbein when we really need him?
Category: Veteran Health Care
Candidly, this is just the proverbial nose under the tent event… if congress allows it.
The VA health care system is next on the agenda.
The only surprise is that the effort didn’t START there.
Of all of the bureaucracies in DC that could/would/should be cut the DVA is an outlier of sorts. It simply isn’t needed under ObamaCare.
Yeah. I’m repeating some of what Jonn said above, and the linked article mentioned.
Just shifting the emphasis…
And the sad part is that it will probably work. My employer healthcare is already about the same cost as Tricare plus dental, and it provides eye care coverage. My PCM is pretty good and appointments are not too tough to get, so I’ll stick with it as long as I can. If it gets too expensive, that’ll have to be it. And the folks who don’t have good options to fall back on? Basically screwed.
Vote, people, Vote.
That’s it, the end.
From now on, with all the screwing the Administration (both parties) is giving the military, AD & retired, no more. No more. If any young person asks about joining the military, I’ll tell them to go in, one term at best, get the training (and discipline), then get out. It just ain’t worth it any more. The pay, the deployments, the DADT, the health care, the promises broken, IT-JUST-ISN’T-THERE-ANY-MORE.
So sad, so bad.
Pretty soon, the Congress will have to bring back the draft to fill the ranks. ANd then watch the shit fly when some one wise ass challenges it in court on involuntary servitude (slavery).
Thought you guys might like this:
Military defends its handling of ‘stolen valor’ medals
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/53617006-90/military-chaffetz-database-brown.html.csp
“Representatives from the Defense Department, Army, Navy and Air Force testified in a House hearing Wednesday that creating a centralized database of military awards would take more effort than it’s worth and they defended their separate record-keeping processes.
“There appear to be adequate procedures in place to verify fraudulent claims to military decorations,” said Lernes Hebert, the director of the Defense Department’s Office of Enlisted Personnel Management.
A visibly frustrated Chaffetz, R-Utah, said he would draft legislation to force them to create a central depository.
“I think this is a lack of leadership within the Pentagon,” he said. “They have failed to recognize the problem. They have failed to recognize the need.”
Joseph Davis with the Veterans of Foreign Wars supports Chaffetz’s position saying an easy-to-use database would help those who really served the nation, streamlining their access to health care, disability benefits and burial services.”
Waiting for Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s news announcement on Obama’s eligibility to be on the 2012 ballot in Arizona. Should be fun!
While a centralized database would be awesome, just imagine all the mistakes that would be made. Hell with my own awards I got sick and tired of the USMC awards branch screwing up. I mean is it really that hard to merge one list of awards in my SRB with another list of awards that I have from the USMC awards dept. Now imagine this 500,000 times over.
And they wonder why there’s so many homeless crazy vets and crazy active duty members,because the idiots keep raising healthcare cost and people can’t afford it.Therefore they stop taking meds!
This is all part of the Dem’s plans to force everybody onto Obamacare. If you raise the cost of healthcare so high that nobody can afford it, they will drop it and enter into Obamacare as the only alternative then the Dem’s can point to “all of the people flocking to Obamacare, see its a great success!”
Are you saying that Commander Fong is no good? I don’t know how much power we Legion folks have, but I know we do represent and fight for and against legislation involving veterans. It’s frustrating to be sure, but I don’t know what impact is to be had…Maybe TSO does?
The database effort is a good start. But it also needs to include procedures and a section devoted to verified false claimants as well.
Setting up a database for the MOH and DSC/NC wouldn’t be that difficult; ditto the DDSM and service DSMs. However, the SS has, if I recall correctly, well in excess of 100,000 awardees; the LOM, BSM w/V and PH, even more. And I don’t even want to think about how many MSMs/CMs/AMs and campaign medals have been issued. Below the DSM, award records are generally not centralized, as award authority for SS and below is typically delegated down to the 3-star or lower levels during wartime.
Bottom line: any kind of comprehensive database is gonna take time to get right – and until it’s right, we’ll still have the “they haven’t got around to entering mine” claims. A “known bozo” section w/small digital photos could at least preclude someone from repeatedly making false claims in different locations.
Jwhiz, speaking of meds, up your dosage, shitbird.
Look at it this way. The Vets and currently-serving Service Members can’t opt out like the now-unionized Federal workers. Isn’t it great how a sovereign nation treats its only layer of protection?
Flagwaver: “unionized Federal workers” is substantially more myth than reality. Actually, less than 1/3 of the Federal workforce is even represented by a union, and only about 1/4 of the workforce are union members.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fed…membershi.html
And while the Federal civilian plans are decent, they’re not free – or even particularly cheap. Blue Cross/Blue Shield Standard runs over $5100 yearly for a family. And it’s not the most expensive plan available.
http://www.opm.gov/insure/health/planinfo/2012/brochures/71-005.pdf
OK, here’s the fix for the broken first link above.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2011/01/federal_worker_union_membershi.html
My husband was in USN for 20 and has been employed 14 years now by civilians. Since 2008 with businesses closing and downsizing he’s been unemployed twice. We had to cash in our 401 K’s, rely on retirement, downsize house payment,and sweat bullets. We have no savings, just retirement. Both of us in our mid-50’s have college loans. He couldn’t have gotten jobs without his bachelor’s degree and I need one if he dies. I won’t get retirement from USN. Catch is I’ll have to find a job. We aren’t in some kind of sweet deal, just surviving. He works like a dog, which is good, but we’re not sponging off government.