I don't get it why do you love this guy so much when he keeps trying to
balance his budget on the backs of retirees???
"BigRedWingsFan" <me@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:52l7q2F1osagcU1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> "Tom" <tomtk3@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> news:z7KdnQkgzOsrx1jYnZ2dnUVZ_r6vnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> USDR Legislative Update
>>
>> Date: January 17, 2007
>>
>>
>> Tricare fee hikes needed, task force is told
>>
>>
>> By Gordon Lubold - Staff writer
>> A new task force charged with looking at the future of military health
>> care may help the Pentagon to do what it failed to do last year:
convince
>> an unreceptive Congress to increase some fees for Tricare users in
order
>> to keep the military medical system whole. The Task Force on the Future
>> of Military Healthcare, mandated by Congress, had its first substantive
>> meeting Tuesday, during which its 14 members were briefed on the issues
>> confronting the Defense Department's health care system.
>>
>>
>> Senior Pentagon officials gave the task force an earful. The prognosis
>> for the health care system is grim, said David S.C. Chu, the Pentagon's
>> personnel chief, unless higher fees
>>
>> - which would be aimed mostly at "working age" retirees, those under
age
>> 65 - aren't implemented, and soon. The Pentagon is already trying to
>> increase efficiencies within the system and implement better business
>> practices to save money. But that won't do it alone, Chu told the
group.
>>
>>
>> "It's our conclusions that the current business practices do not lead
to
>> a sustainable benefit over the long term," he said If Congress doesn't
>> allow the Pentagon to "rebalance" the ratio of costs paid by the
>> department and by beneficiaries, and charge beneficiaries more for the
>> services they use, then the health care that all military members and
>> dependents receive will suffer, he said.
>>
>>
>> Last March, Chu said the percentage of health care costs covered by
>> beneficiaries had shrunk from 27 percent in 1995 to a current level of
>> about 12 percent. At that time, the Pentagon was putting forth an
>> ambitious program to fix the long-term viability of the Tricare
program,
>> considered by defense officials to be one of the best health care
>> programs in the nation.
>>
>>
>> The thrust of the proposal was to increase some Tricare enrollment fees
>> and deductibles
>> for retirees under age 65. Defense officials argued that the fee
>> structure has not been significantly changed in more than a decade -
even
>> as health care costs have consistently shot upward - and that the only
>> way to continue offering a high level of service is to make those
>> changes.
>>
>>
>> But the plan drew sharp criticism from both Republicans and Democrats
on
>> Capitol Hill, who did not want to tinker with fees, and the proposal
was
>> dropped. Chu acknowledged that politics played a role in the Pentagon's
>> failure to articulate its message properly, and that they had
introduced
>> the proposal at an already fractious time in national politics, as
debate
>> raged about the war in Iraq.
>>
>>
>> "There was a deep reluctance to make a change," Chu said. Pentagon
>> officials won't acknowledge if they'll be back again with a similar
>> proposal when President Bush's fiscal 2008 defense budget is released
>> Feb. 5. But if so, the task force, which Chu said can play a role in
>> building consensus on this and other issues, may help grease the skids
in
>> Congress. For now, the group is simply learning the challenges facing
the
>> Pentagon, members said.
>>
>>
>> The group will meet again Feb. 6.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Noel Pritzl
>> Web Site Director, USDR
>> (931) 648-4292
>> Angler88@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>
>>
>
>
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