Pentagon: move retirees to Obamacare
Yeah, who didn’t see this coming; budget experts at the Pentagon say that the Department of Defense could save butt loads of money if they forced military retirees into Obamacare. We know that, but it’s not keeping faith with veterans who fulfilled their obligations depending on the government to keep their end up. From the Army Times;
[T]he budget analysts said the Defense Department could realize tremendous savings if it tapped into the resources offered by the general, civilian health care system and coverage available through federal or state exchanges.
“It’s a little radical, but should we be thinking about how some of the military system might transition some of their people to the Affordable Care Act exchanges, especially in sparsely populated areas of the country?” said Alice Rivlin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget who now serves as a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution.
Some of you told me that I was crazy when I warned about this in 2008 before the election. There was a reason that they pumped so much money into the VA, so they could drive us away from Tricare. The Obama Administration claimed that they wanted to make healthcare cheaper for the entire country when they introduced Obamacare – well, everyone except veterans.
John Mayer, a military health and energy analyst with Booz Allen Hamilton, added the Pentagon should be under no obligation to continue providing “free health” care to those who have retired from military service and have access to health care either through their employers or the Affordable Care Act.
“Having a program where they can go in and get free health care, and do it as often as they want seems to be a burden that the American public shouldn’t have to bear,” Mayer said, speaking of the military retiree population who uses Tricare.
I absolutely challenge him to say the same about Medicaid or Medicare. Some of us made life decisions based on promises that the government had no intention to keep.
Category: Veteran Health Care
Right there with ya, Jonn. Maybe not word for word, I’ve been saying it, too. Medicare/Medicaid is where Gruber & asshats want people to go.
Actually the asshats want everyone to go on Obamacare, even Medicare. Medicade will stay alone forever along with food stamps because of the votes they generate. Disgusting.
The crash of the VT experiment will be a challenge when the ACA finally collapses under its own weight.
Can’t say if little old Vermont can do we should too.
my husband is 100% disabled. I’m his caregiver. I’m confused as to what this will do to his care.
Let me explain Medicare to those people who think it’s free.
Medicare Part A is free. It pays for your stay in the hospital and for blood. That’s it.
Medicare Part B is NOT FREE. It comes out of your monthly social security payment.
Medicare Part C is separate coverage through a private carrier, and is not free. I have yet to see it mentioned as part of howbadismycare.
Medicare Part D is prescription coverage. You still have to pay something as co-pay. Also, if you need medigap coverage for prescriptions, you have to pay for that. The VA will allow vets to substitute VA prescriptions for Part D, but you still have to pay the co-pay.
Medicare is NOT free, and has not been free for some time. My mother let me know right away when she started paying for it. I think it was a couple of years after my father passed on.
Oh, and one other thing: the VA does not and can NOT charge Medicare for any of your needs, so if you don’t have other insurance, YOU’RE SCREWED.
Medicare Part A is not free. I have been paying for it since my first paycheck at 15 years old. I will continue to pay for it until I retire. When I was that young, they didn’t break it down between Medicare and Social Security. That changed many years ago and anyone can now see what they are paying for their Medicare Part A.
By the way, I just got this from VA:
Veterans dental insurance is now available for enrolled Veterans and CHAMPVA beneficiaries.
http://links.govdelivery.com/track?type=click&enid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTQxMjA1LjM5MDQ5NjcxJm1lc3NhZ2VpZD1NREItUFJELUJVTC0yMDE0MTIwNS4zOTA0OTY3MSZkYXRhYmFzZWlkPTEwMDEmc2VyaWFsPTE2OTQxODUzJmVtYWlsaWQ9SUFHb2xlbUBjb21jYXN0Lm5ldCZ1c2VyaWQ9SUFHb2xlbUBjb21jYXN0Lm5ldCZmbD0mZXh0cmE9TXVsdGl2YXJpYXRlSWQ9JiYm&&&101&&&http://www.washingtondc.va.gov/WASHINGTONDC/features/Dental_Insurance.asp
Well I hope all of us that are on Tricare raise hell and write to our reps about the promise made to us while we served. Any mention of this should result in a flood of e-mails to every in box in congress.
I saw this earlier on my FB feed from the Military Enquirer…I mean Times. To which I am drawn back to the fiasco that was some think tanks in the Carter Admin that said the DoD could save money by abolishing CHAMPUS and making everyone in the DoD move their healthcare to private insurance companies. The joy of this was short lived as my folks and family friends relayed it to me. Everyone received a stipend to pay for their dependents. The problem was that there were folks who saw a pot of gold from the government and no oversight. In the end guys were overpaying for minor services rendered, some guys were going broke over normal simple life events like child bearing and kids having accidents, some companies had so restrictive payment authorizations that the doctors in regions quit accepting the insurance. Basically it failed miserably and until TriCare came along to replace CHAMPUS it was on and off again multiple times until someone realized that the plan that the Carter folks cooked up was more expensive then just letting folks use the base hospitals and clinics for dependent care.
I pay $538 a year for my Family Tricare, I would pay double that a month under ObummerCare .. I would like to think this will never happen. I have already sent a dozen or so E-Mails. They have no idea what kind of shit storm will be started by a bunch of Pissed off Veterans !
Right there with yah. I have to pay for Tricare, so I don’t know wtf he’s talking about ‘free health’ care. Last time I checked Tricate was running at a surplus and if they would quit swiping it to pay for other things….
[…] Jonn shared earlier… The Games […]
As someone whose father is a retired AF Officer, allow me to invite these bean counters to procreate with themselves and promptly expire.
Militay.com had a story about vets wanting cash sum payout for retirement instead of whatever they do now. All the non get libtards that spam over there were bashing vets that wanted it. Vets know the govt doesn’t have their back and it’s only a matter of time until they get thrown under the bus. This further proves the obvious.
Uncle Sam is the biggest fraud today.
I was going to do 20 until the more I looked into it, the more I realize this isn’t the military my father or grandfather grew up in. No one has your back except your direct unit supervision anymore; and even then, within the unit you’ve got people trying to undermine each other just for that next rank; and I’m just here like “this is nothing like what I heard, in a BAD way”. Paired off with all this crap about the government basically lying through their teeth in return for my life? I’m about to just finish out this enlistment, and go to school somewhere sunny. I could have been making six figures programming on the outside.
Well since the UNAffordable Care Act has been such a whopping success in America thus far, this is the only way these clowns can force increased participation. I think it is sheer evil on the part of the Pentagon, the Administration, Congress and this nation if this is allowed to go forward. It is the big lie to veterans coming true again. Tell me again Mr. Recruiter, what are the upsides to me enlisting? Tell me again Top, what are the upsides for me reenlisting to make a career of the military?
Its only a net gain to the Pentagon if they get to keep the $52B that they spend on healthcare.
I’d like to run into Mr. Mayer in a dark alley some time. The medical package is part of the delayed compensation package and a huge inducement for service members to complete a full career (or at least it was part of my calculus at the 8-13 year point).
Idiotic stuff like this make me wonder if the younger troops who might think getting a lump sum earlier might have the right idea. What is the actual “value” of a future benefit that can be taken away with the blowing of the wind, vice increased pay and a contractual lump sum payment?
Luddite4Change…You laid it on the line there. If they keep taking away incentives to make the military a career or even a first time enlistment, who will they go to war with, the E-4 Mafia? I think not. You’re right about the money too. I would lay odds in Vegas that it comes out of the Defense budget and goes immediately into some social give away program. Maybe to help out all the new Cuban immigrants we can soon look forward to.
Shit, when I retired in ’90 I had free health care for awhile then along comes TriCare – yea, a real good thing, BS! Yea, it wasn’t expensive but it was the principle of the thing. Really pissed off my wife too. Well now I’m on Medicare/Tricare for Life and I decided screw it last year I started going to the VA in Temple, Tx. I’ve not had any issues at all with them, period. Now they want to stick us on ‘ObamaCare’ what a freaking joke!
The Tricare surplus was stolen to finance a windmill farm, now this. I dread to think what supertanker-loads of backstabbing and chickenshit will come next from B. Hussein 0bama & Company?
Mayer has lost his mind. We earned our Tricare and we pay for it and dental coverage every month. We have sacrificed more than the rest of the population. Leave us alone!
I guess it goes without saying that these budget pogues are civilians. Am I right?
“‘Having a program where they can go in and get free health care, and do it as often as they want seems to be a burden that the American public shouldn’t have to bear,’ Mayer said, speaking of the military retiree population who uses Tricare.” Well, Mr. Mayer, we lifted the burden of universal military conscription from the American public a few decades ago, and in the ensuing years, some of us volunteered to pick up the slack, with the promise that we’d be afforded health care as part of the quid pro quo. Are you now reneging on that promise? I’m curious (hence the name), just how small a burden should the American public be expected to bear at the expense of those of us who served when others wouldn’t?