Stand by, it will get worse!

It Sank before it got underway.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/03/18/obama-drops-controversial-health-care-plan-wounded-veterans/

Obama to Bill Veterans for Health Care

Reminds me of the time somebody in Congress wanted to bill us for the taxes on the cost of flying us to Vietnam!

Ray Payne

Veterans benefits

Please be advised that Mr. Obama has withdrawn from his budget the attempt to make us pay for our VA benefits using private insurance.

NOTAM contact me at larry.wert @ mail.house.gov if you have or hear of any other Obamanomics attacks.

Stoggie
HMH 463

I son't knoww where you all have been but the VA as a mater of policy tried to bill private insurance and has for some time. I know BS/BC will not pay them nor will medicare so i always thought this as a non issure

I have BC/BS insurance and the Naval Pharmacy at Millington bills them for my medicine and BC/BS has been paying them for years.

BC/BS Pays

My BC/BS has been paying the VA for at least 10 years that I can remember. I suspect they will when I change it over to a Medicare Supplement next year.

It must be the BC/BS regional I had it with Empire BC/BS and they wouldn't pay anything. The point still is that this is a VA policy to try and bill private ins it you have it. I had it and every time I went in the VA billed and Empire turned it down. During my orientation they stressed they would try to bill all services to private insurance and this was many years ago.

Tricare for Life may be in trouble

For your attention.......
>
> Looks like the administration needs money savings from American
> veterans to pay for their universal health plan campaign promises.
> Here comes CHANGE that will affect YOU.
>
> S
>
> From the Special Operations Association.
>
> Gents: TriCare for Life may be in trouble.
>
> To: All Military Retirees:
>
> This is a "Heads Up" on a battle we are facing now and down the road
> with the new Administration. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has
> already drafted proposed legislation that would basically reduce our
> TRICARE for Life benefits to a system whereby we pay deductibles and
> co-pays up to $6,301 the first year for you and your spouse, with
> future years being indexed to increase with inflation.
>
> What can we do? The article below, obtained from an Air Force
> Association and written by BG Bob Clements, best describes what we can
> do. Please read it and check the links for CBO language and do what
> Bob says-Send this email to every Military Retiree you know and write
> and email your Congressman often. For those of you that might have
> voted for "Change", you should do it more than often!
>
> TRICARE FOR LIFE'S FUTURE....
>
> TRICARE For Life was instituted to correct the broken promise that
> military retirees would receive free healthcare coverage for life and
> it covers the Medicare co-pay. Now a heavy assault has begun on
> Veterans'/Retirees' benefits to pay for other programs our President
> promised during the campaign. And it is a high priority of his
> administration. The one item of most interest to Retired Military is
> in Article 189. If approved by Congress the first assault wave would
> hit 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.
>
> For those of you who are covered by TFL you will want to pay attention
> (Below) to what BG Bob Clements has surfaced about the future of TFL.
> 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.
>
> Just another move to slight those of us who dedicated much of our
> adult lives to the defense of our country. Strongly recommend that you
> contact your elected officials and register your strong opposition to
> the elimination of the TFL program.
>
> Heads-up from BG Bob Clements,USAF Ret(P38 Bob) The following has been
> added to the Congressional Budget Office Web Site www.cbo.gov/
>
>
> a. Budget, Options, Volume 1: Health Care
>
> (www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=9925
> )
>
> 1. click on PDF
>
> 2. do a search for TFL
>
> Now here it is folks and I will guarantee if you sit around on your
> behind and do nothing about it as they bring these options forward
> this coming year, you will lose one of the best healthcare benefits
> that the Medicare eligible retired military have. It is short of the
> promises made that we fought so hard for back in the late 90s and
> early 2000s but it is still the best healthcare program that anyone in
> the United States has, bar none.
>
> 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.
>
> The service organizations 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 just read the data on the noted sites
> 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 fan, 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.
> If you know of anyone who is Retired Military, please forward this on
> to them. Remember- TFL is an "Earned Benefit" that's been granted by a
> previous Congress.
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> This e-mail contains privileged and confidential information intended
> for the use of the addressees named above. If you are not the intended
> recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that you must not
> disseminate, copy or take any action in respect of any information
> contained in it. If you have received this e-mail in error, please
> notify the sender immediately by e-mail and immediately destroy this
> e-mail and its attachments.

Tcfl

Just think, when the "they" ask the troops to get up and attack the enemy and only 20 % of the troops will do so, based on the USGov't base of TCFL reimbursement.
Sorry if this seems sarcastic...but somebody has changed the rules since we put our live's on the line, ever so long ago... The US Government was the oringinator of "Indian Giving."

balancing the budget

Dear Mother of deceased Marine, please return our new earth friendly re cycliable body bag as we returned your Marine. POSTAGE DUE !:D

Tricare For Life

This piece has been floating around the internet for some time now. This piece has the smell of conservative scare tactics. (I thought the subject of politics was taboo on this site). Below, read what an Independent member of Congress has to say about this.

Tricare Correspondence From Senator Lieberman - I think this may clear things up on the TRICARE SCARE

February 19, 2009

Mr. Mark Buxton
1250 Farmington Ave Apt C23
West Hartford, CT 06107

Dear Mr. Buxton:
Thank you for contacting me regarding rumored cuts in benefit programs
for military retirees, including TRICARE for Life. Currently, a wealth of
false and misleading information is being distributed on this matter; and
I welcome the opportunity to explain the source of the confusion.

I am aware of several chain emails, online discussion boards, blogs,
and even articles in well-intentioned veterans' publications that imply
that President Obama and Congress plan on eliminating TRICARE for Life.
The insinuations put forth by these sources are false.

The source of these stories is a report issued by the Congressional
Budget Office (CBO), entitled Budget Options Volume 1: Heath Care,
released in December 2008. Before jumping to conclusions about the report
itself, however, it is important to know exactly what the CBO is. CBO is
a nonpartisan federal agency, tasked with providing Congress with cost
estimates for the many legislative proposals considered each year. It
also periodically offers Congress suggestions for adjusting federal
spending. CBO is an information gathering body for Members of Congress.
Its recommendations about the budget are completely non binding; and its
officers do not draft actual policy, legislation, or law.

The Budget Options report in question offers a total of 115 options for
reducing (or, in some cases, increasing) federal spending on health care,
only three of which relate to TRICARE. These options are merely
suggestions, not policy statements or actual legislation. Reports such as
this one are routine, and very few options or recommendations made by CBO
are typically acted upon. President Obama has not indicated support for
the three recommendations in this report related to TRICARE, nor has any
Member of Congress, to the best of my knowledge. Any suggestion that the
Administration is affiliated with this report ignores the fact that it
was drafted by the CBO - which, again, is an advisory body of the
legislative branch, not the executive branch.

You may also be interested to know that both the Reserve Officers
Association (ROA) and the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA)
have issued statements condemning the aforementioned rumors that are
being perpetuated through these chain emails.

I hope that you have found this letter informative, and I encourage you
to share this information with members of your community who are
concerned about issues relating to military retirees. As a member of the
Senate Armed Services Committee, please be assured of my continued
commitment to protecting the various interests of all those who have
fought tirelessly to protect our cherished freedoms.

Thank you again for sharing your views and concerns with me. I hope you
will continue to visit my website at http://lieberman.senate.gov for
updated news about my work on behalf of Connecticut and the nation.
Please contact me if you have any additional questions or comments about
our work in Congress.

Sincerely,

Joseph I. Lieberman
UNITED STATES SENATOR

Clarification

Thanks for clearing that up. The article was fwded to me by someone and I was unable to find clarification at the time; I am skeptical of posts from that news source and person and always look for verification.

Yes, the entire health scare movement is political and has anything but the health of our citizens, veterans and otherwise, as its goal.

Senator Liebermans letter

As the last person suggested this site is taboo for political speach, so please keep your ___ thoughts to yourself.

Opinions

I made the initiating post in the thread which merely consisted of a link to an article that referred directly to veterans and posted it here so that it may be reviewed.

I made the last post to point out that in no way did I mean the initial posting of the article link as any sort of political statement. I DO believe that our citizens, especially our veterans, deserve the best possible health and health care that can be had. Period. Illness can be a stressful and scary prospect for everyone.

Sorry you feel the need to make a personal attack on me for expressing that sentiment.

Carl L. Rice;24087 wrote: As the last person suggested this site is taboo for political speach, so please keep your ___ thoughts to yourself.

letter from Senator

I am sorry if you thought I was mounting a personal attack, I do not believe our web site was intended for political statements, your statement about health scare I believe to be political, as is the senators letter. It is nothing personal against you.
Carl L. Rice

Political referred to messages...

Carl, it was a statement by a USMC widow...I can guarantee you that imbedded spyware already has it on their account (i.e. Google). As the subject of her posting was for the benefit and knowledge of all...what's the problem with that...?

TriCare for Life

My Email from Congressman Rep. Gene Talyor, This should put a end to this Hoax.

November 3, 2009

Mr. Edgar Mckinnie
5621 Aila St.
Diamondhead, MS 39525-

Dear Edgar:

Thank you for sharing your concern about a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report that allegedly contains a recommendation to increase the current enrollment fees and copayments charged to Tricare for Life beneficiaries. I always appreciate when South Mississippians take the time to contact me on important issues.

I regret to say that you have been the victim of a hoax that has been circulating on the internet for nearly a year. This email that you've received is absolutely false. Like you, I also strongly oppose Tricare for Life fees increases, and I want to reassure you that there is no legislation before Congress nor proposed by the Obama Administration to increase fees paid by military retirees or their dependents for Tricare for Life.

Although the person or persons responsible for this hoax actually do quote an authentic CBO report from December 2008, the report is not a legislative proposal. The pages referenced in the report provide a budgetary score for a proposals previously attempted by the Bush Administration to increase Tricare for Life copayments and enrollment fees for health care provided to Medicare-eligible military retirees and their dependents. As you may recall, a bipartisan majority in Congress prevented Secretary Rumsfeld from implementing these increases each of the three times he sought to do it.

Sadly, you are not the only person to have been taken in by these false emails. I have received several similar emails asserting that Congress or President Obama is seeking to increase Tricare fees for retirees or that his healthcare reform proposals include changes to Tricare or health services provided to veterans through the VA system. These emails simply are not true. Many of these false emails are allegedly attributed to "Brigadier General Bob Clements, USAF, Ret". I do not know whether Bob Clements is a real person or not, but a lie is a lie. Although I strongly suspect that he is a fictional character created by the perpetrator of this hoax, shame on him if he is a real person or whoever is knowingly sending out this garbage.

As I mentioned, so many people have been taken-in by these false emails that James Hamby of the Military Times publication published an opinion column on Friday, September 25, 2009, warning his readers not to get fooled by these false statements. Mr. Hamby's column can be found at the following link: http://www.armytimes.com/benefits/health/offduty_tricarehelp_090709w/ . In addition, the Reserve Officers Association (ROA) issued a similar warning to its members about this hoax. The ROA notice can be accessed at this website: http://reserveofficer.blogspot.com/2009/09/tricare-help-how-will-health-care.html .

Again, thank you for sharing your concerns on this important matter. If I may be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

GENE TAYLOR
Member of Congress
GT:sp