CBO; remove working age retirees from Tricare to save billons
Obviously, the Congressional Budget Office is looking for ways to screw the living shit out of veterans, especially retirees. We talked earlier last week about all of the ways that they could make healthcare more expensive for veteran retirees. I joked that doing away with Tricare altogether would save them the most money without gouging into the most constituents. They must have been reading, because they are now thinking about removing “working age” veterans from Tricare, according to a link sent by Travis from the Military Times;
According to the CBO, proposals to increase Tricare enrollment fees and copayments for working-age retirees could save $24.1 billion from 2015 to 2023, while introducing minimum out-of-pocket charges for beneficiaries using Tricare for Life would save roughly $18.4 billion.
But banning working age retirees from the Pentagon’s HMO-style Prime plan could save $89.6 billion — an amount difficult to ignore, budget experts said.
So, what they want to do is force retirees into the current mess that they’ve created for the rest of America in regards to health care – that monstrosity dubbed Obamacare. Never mind that any of us stayed in the service to get cheaper healthcare, that we were promised healthcare as a condition of our continued service, that we’ve already fulfilled our part of that bargain and can’t get our youth back. They could save even more money if they just outright decided to stop giving us our pensions, too. Are they really that petty? Are they really that jealous of our retirement benefits that they just want to strip away every fiscal reason that we served?
Category: Veteran Health Care, Veterans Issues
Yeah, 89B over how many years? That could be an important detail.
Jonn, I’ve been saying for some time that this mind-set existed. Some folks called me paranoid?
To reiterate: Veterans, in general, will be lumped into whatever retirement/disability/medical system that best suits “the common good” as defined by The Bureaucrats.
The trend really has been clear. You are just sniping at the top of the hat, rather than the head.
Damn the Orwell…
Here is an idea… remove the millions of working age leeches living on welfare and review all Social Security Disability Claims to remove the estimated 50% of all claims being fraudulent.
No, let’s attack the benefits of those who actually earned them.
I am curious to see what this does to retention rates – upside is perhaps they will be forced to think before stepping into the latest mess we *have* to fix in whatever Godforsaken craphole next time.
The answer to the question: are they really that petty?
Yes. They are.
Take away any incentive for remaining in a job, in a career field, and you eliminate that career field as well.
Why doesn’t the Congressional Budget Office say, “remove all the pensions from the millionaire former Representatives and Senators and make them get a real job” and recommend term limits along with it?
When the CBO states how bad Obamacare is going to be on the deficit, the douchebags in gummint don’t listen. But when they say “screw over veterans and the military!” they all jump on board and say, “well, it’ll be better for the whole, you have to give a little…”
Retention rates are a moot point in today’s Army. Big Army is cutting about 100,000 troops and attrition alone is not doing it. The more they can get to leave before retirement, the better in their eyes. It’s a different environment now.
Uhhh… Yeah? The country doesn’t love us friend. They need us to fight their wars, but once that is done they want us to disappear. These are the same mother fuckers that would be begging us to defend them if someone showed up on our doorstep and tried to take over America, and the same dirt bags that want us to put any backbone whatsoever into our foreign policy. Don’t think for a second that our nation loves or appreciates us. They don’t. We aren’t war heroes, we are drains on the tax payers, to be trotted out on parade day so politicians can feel better about themselves. They lied to the Indians, they lied to the immigrants, they lied to the Mexicans too. They lie to the people every four years and the uninformed spineless tit suckers they call tax payers eat that shit up. No one is fooled, and we are as financially corrupt as we are morally corrupt. This is not a nation of freedom or independence anymore, the government no longer represents the people, and we are no longer one nation under God. A lot of blood will and must be spilt before people understand what America stands for. Ask anyone in Eastern Europe over the age of 60 who Americans are. They know firsthand what our country stands for, and what a shame they know more than the 90% of Americans who can tell you who snooky,honey-boob-boo-minaji-niqua-whatever is but can’t name the branches of government. We don’t deserve America anymore. At least the quasi citizen/residents don’t. What was it they said about Rome? Bread and circuses? This will be our legacy. Bread and circuses.
Holland, OUT.
The working age retiree is all smoke and mirrors. The fine print of tri-care for retirees is it has always been secondary insurer if employer provided insurance or other insurance is available.
If the military retiree was covered under working spouse’s employer provided health care insurance policy, Tri-care also became secondary payee to the insurance coverage provided through the spouses Insurance.
Also child dependents are dropped from Tri-care eligibility unless fulltime student’s or some other significant eligibility criteria is met.
The affordable care act makes it almost impossible to opt out of an employer mandated must provide health insurance policy. Also if you were self employed or worked for a small business not government coerced to provide Employer provided healthcare Insurance, the eliminating tri-care for working age retirees is nothing more than a BS excuse to get people signing up for government provided and sanctioned affordable care act health insurance.
I wonder whether the VFW will invite The Emperor to address its national convention again. After all, it was there that he said, “So let’s stop playing politics with our military.” Oh, he also spoke about “upholding America’s sacred trust with our veterans.” Yeah, well, there you go. That must have been years ago. No. It was not even two years ago.
I don’t want to pick on the VFW. In his address to the AL convention, where Jonn was nearly tossed for using a camera or something, The Emperor ended his little talk there with this:”[B]ut to the veterans and families of all generations: no matter when you served, no matter how many years ago you took off the uniform, no matter how long you live as a proud veteran of this country we love, America will never leave your side.”
Platitudes and Bullshit. Bullshit and Platitudes. Yeah, I hope that he shows up again at a VFW or AL convention. They were stupid to have him then and I said so then. I know it’s tough to treat the man who personally got OBL that way but I call ’em as I sees ’em.
oops left off dropped at age 21. reference http://www.humana-military.com/library/pdf/tricare-eligibility-fs.pdf
The sponsor’s children’s eligibility continues until reaching age 21, or until age 23 if they are fulltime students at approved institutions of higher learning and the sponsor provides over 50 percent of the financial support.1 After “aging out” of TRICARE benefits, certain eligible dependents may extend TRICARE coverage until reaching age 26 with the premium-based TYA program.
Some of youse guys are too young to remember the TRICARE battle and the law suit by (I think) retired Air Force Colonel Bud Day. He sued the shit out of the government with our backing. We hounded elected officials and once all of the veterans organizations united, we got TRICARE For Life. That same contract they made with earlier generations applies to every one of you. Hopefully sooner rather than later another Colonel Bud Day will step forward as the tip of the spear. My organization, MOAA, pays more than lip service to retaining earned entitlements. It is past time for EVERY bonafide veterans organization to get with the program, there are more important things than sitting at the bar claiming to be SF. It is f’in dejavu all over again.
It is my understanding that the CBO does not analyze anything unless it is asked to do so.
That means someone in Congress asked for the analysis.
I am not as upset about it as many here appear to be. The reason for that is that if some Congress critter were to say “we need to replace the current system” and that new system costs more and offers less, the only way you can know that is if you have the data.
Many of the points here are valid as to if and when Tricare is drawn down further. (I was opposed to its limitations being implemented to begin with.) However, I am not against studying and getting numbers on which good decisions can be based.
Whether Congress and the DoD can make “good decisions” is another issue altogether.
CBO and the other politicos fail to realize that civilian employers aren’t exactly welcoming military retirees with open arms.
If I ETS’d after three years and went to work I’d be a lot further along than I am now – staying in for two plus decades and then starting out in civvie-land in my 40’s. Frankly, healthcare didn’t drive my decisions to reup, but Tricare helped stretch my paycheck after I retired, especially the first few years.
I have to wonder… how much money would be saved if civilian (including Congressional) pensions and benefits were cancelled? Probably more than $89 billion.
B. Hussein 0bama and Clowngress will NEVER DARE to crack down on welfare and SSI fraud, let alone fraud in ANY Government handout program in fear of being labeled “uncaring racists, etc.” by the sniveling, snot-drooling liberals in the mess media. Thus we Vets are just throwaway scum of the Earth to them, we don’t vote demo-RAT, so we’re disposable!
Yes, they are that petty. As well as having such low morals that they think nothing of violating their trust, ignoring laws, and generally doing whatever nasty thing they can to quash any opposition to their lunacy.
I’m thinking we need to encourage young people to not join the military for maybe the next 5 years or so…then everybody who’s now in, let their enlistment expire, or retire…then get out.
Then in about 5 years, they’d have NOBODY to send to silly ass shit like Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Africa and any other shitty place.
do they understand that in 20 years of service, you’ve usually worked the equivalent of 30 or 40 years with working 16 hour days, 7 days a week, deployments, wars, and being subject to being on duty all 24 hours of a day.
I really don’t like this Barry Obama guy. And, I don’t give a shit about his race/ethnicity.
My guess is around this time next year, comfortably after the 2014 mid-terms, working age retirees will get booted off Tricare. The political class of both parties knows they can shit on veterans with impunity.
Meanwhile, some of the stuff in the latest spending bill…from WAPO:
?The bill gives at least $62 million, and possibly as much as $119 million, to the United States Enrichment Corp., a government spinoff that last month announced plans to file for bankruptcy.
? It blocks the Navy from retiring seven cruisers and two amphibious ships. It gave the Pentagon $950 million more than it wanted for one class of attack submarines. But the measure denied the Pentagon $8 million it sought to study more base closures.
? It gives the oil and nuclear industries a bonanza: $154 million more than the Energy Department requested for nuclear energy, and $141 million more than requested for fossil-fuel development, despite enormous oil profits.
?Skirting a ban on earmarks, the bill provides more than $44 million for the Army Corps of Engineers that the administration had not requested. And lawmakers have been issuing news releases bragging about pet projects that are earmarks in everything but name.
More on the spending: http://www.taxpayer.net/library/article/tcs-omnibus-analysis-blog
A couple of questions come to mind after reading this article –
o If actually implemented, will we be able to switch to Tricare Standard or will we be forced out of Tricare in its entirety? The AT story didn’t mention or specify.
o Since this will “save” 90B, won’t the Pentagon’s budget be reduced by that same amount? You know the funding adage “if we don’t spend it this year, we won’t get it next year”
Are they that petty? Yes, they are. Would they actually do that? Yes, they will.
Will your elected “Representatives” do anything about it? “I’ll take Never In A Million Years, for a thousand, Alex”
The elected ones on both sides don’t care anymore. They’ve got theirs and screw you. But you”ll vote for them again won’t you?
@18 – CI RollerDude, do they understand? No. Do they care? No.
Any questions?
They won’t ‘understand’ or care until or unless this country is physically attacked again, as in Pearl Harbor.
Before WWII, the military was so reduced in size and strength that the Army still had remount stations and was still using the horse cavalry to train for battlefield stuff.
That is not a joke.
For it’s Tommy this an’ Tommy that
An’ chuck ‘im out the brute
But it’s savior of ‘is country
When the guns begin to shoot
An’ it’s Tommy this an’ Tommy that
An’ anything you please
An’ Tommy ain’t no bloomin’ fool
You bet that Tommy sees
Fuck these politicians!
If you ever watched Star Trek: Next Generation, you might remember this episode: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunted_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)
They are genetically enhanced for combat, but after the war they aren’t offered treatment or reconditioning, because their corrupt goverment ‘might need them again’.
We want you when we need you. The rest of the time, we don’t want you around.
The useful idiots in Congress/DOD get to define “working age”, that is what scares me. What would stop them from saying that “working age” is 70 or 75?
I think that we are all on the same page on this. We aren’t stupid and have seen that their actions speak louder than their words. They have been screaming at us through their actions. For instance; they were all for cutting COLA for Veteran retirees, but balked at cutting welfare for illegal immigrants, where they would have saved more than they are by cutting COLA. They said, in one loud voice, “go home Tommy, we don’t want to see or hear you anymore”.
The Dogs of War. I know it’s Shakespeare (Act 3, Scene 1, line 273 of Julius Caesar) but it also describes all of us. We are the Dogs of War. We are the Junkyard Dog, the dog that guards the estate, the one that guards your home from intruders. Your not really part of the family, but are there to protect the family from bad guys. You are trotted out at parties to show off to your friends, but then put back outside or in your kennel so you don’t mingle with the guests. When you are needed, you are counted on to protect your master and whatever your master says needs protecting, but don’t do too good of a job, otherwise you will make the master look mean and inhumane towards the bad guys. Then, when you have done your job, you get put back in the kennel, out of sight and out of mind, because you’re scarred up, bloody, and dirty, until the next time the master needs you to do his dirty work. In the mean time, don’t whine, don’t beg, just lay in your kennel and be quiet, because the master is having another party.
If we forced CBO employees of their generous federal health insurance, how much money would that save? IF we forced working age SSI Disability recipients off of SSID, how much money would that ‘save’? Goose/gander and all that.
@27 – plus there is the factor that when you get out of the military, you are typically going to be behind the peer curve anyway. You’re not hitting the market fresh out of school at 23, you’re hitting it at 33 or 43. Your lifetime earnings will probably be less, and while employers pay lip service to the old ‘military experience’ canard, most expect you to essentially start at ground zero and by the time you are getting a shot at positions requiring 10 years’ market experience, they are typically seeking someone 35 and you’re 45 – or 55. Plus, you are more worn out than typically than your peers – possibly in better shapoe, but with a far higher incidence of damage like blown knees and backs.
Don’t get me wrong – I don’t think I know anyone with any sense who was in it for the money (would have been a damn silly choice!)
We the Veterans of the USA have the power of the internet. We VOTE ! We will vote every
one of you out of office unless you get behind the Veterans of this great land that we
protected so you could sleep at night without fear. Let me be clear. We VOTE.
Most of us still have a GUN somewhere. We know how to use both effectively.
Don’t tread on us !!!!