I am going to type this real slow and in short, concise sentences so you
might have a chance to understand it. I really don't care about Dr. Chu.
I
do understand what he is trying to do and why. I do not agree with it.
It
is, IMO, inevitable, that we military retirees are going to have to share
more of the cost of our healthcare. It just happens to be a country-wide
phenomenon in case you've been living in your mother's basement shut off
from every news source except for Carl Combover's DNC propaganda sheets.
See what the UAW has caused GM & Ford to do with their retiree healthcare
programs.
We were NOT promised FREE healthcare for life. It was suggested that we
would receive healthcare (no mention of cost of lack thereof), and we are,
at a minimum, receiving it in the form of a government sponsored health
insurance.
By the way, how come your hero Levin hasn't sent me my first concurrent
receipt check yet? Wasn't that high on his priorities?
"Tom" <tomtk3@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:FNadnQO_pbQZ1VvYnZ2dnUVZ_qunnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>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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