of course you military retirees should pay more for health care,
I mean it's not like you ever had to work for a living to get the welfare
benefits
that us working people have to pay for,
Jesus Christ, give us a break and get a ****ing job
"BigRedWingsFan" <me@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:52np7eF1pcl5bU1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>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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