Can anyone confirm this?

[babylonsister]

Just rec'd this as an e-mail, and am wondering about the legitimacy of it. Thanks.


Greetings!

From another forum that I thought may interest you. I figure that we had better get acting on this one... If you have a short fuze trying to find the right place, I believe that you will find it in "Option 96," Page 175.

Dave



I don't know how many of you partake of the Tri Care for Life program but here is a very interesting note on the subject. Seems as though our President Elect has placed a priority on cutting it out of the budget as a means to provide funding for those things he promised during the campaign. 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. I would ask that you contact your elected officials and register your strong opposition to the elimination of this program. Just another move to slight those of us who dedicated much of our adult lives to the defense of our country. Thanks for reading and even more for paying attention.

Heads-up from BG Bob Clements, USAF Ret

The following has been added to the Congressional Budget Office Web Site (www.cbo.gov): a. Budget, Options, Volume 1: Health Care (http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=9925)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"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.

Now, I am going to attach AGAIN exactly what OMB has in store for military retirees using TFL. This source is directly from OMB and is not something that I have dreamed up. They are telling you exactly what they are going to do with your benefits. If you do nothing, this is what you will get.

The service organizations will put up a fight and are aware of this and 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 if you will read the attached document 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 lover, 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. chk6 .. bob"

===================================================================================
A footnote: BG Bob Clement is known with affection as"P38bob". He flew P38s in WWII. He was one of the stalwart warriors that led effectively from the front when the hard battles were being fought to bring Tricare for Life to reality. I was honored and pleased to a player in that effort by following P38 Bob's lead. (in those days I was known as MilVet99)

MilVets: it looks like we will again be confronted by the 'attack of the beancounters' who, by and large, wouldn't know (and probalby never will know)genuine unselfish service to our country and are solely motivated by crunching numbers so that those numbers will reflect favorably on their bosses and their boss's causes. They have no thought to the havoc they would cause . . . in many cases the loss of any amount of TFL benefits would be a an insurmountable hardship ..... and to some it would truly be a death sentence.

It is well that we gear up for the fight now. As P38Bob says, we must write, write, write and write. Once is not enough! In time I will be preparing letters for your use in writing to your elected officials and submitting them to the TREA Membership, and to others who may want to join the fight.

Them Beancounters haven't seen anything until they've see a united and angered group of MilVets. Lets do it and git 'er done!!!!! Your comments and inquiries are welcome.

Fred Langston, President (2008), Legislative Affairs Chair, Greater San Diego Chapter 128, The Retired Enlisted Association (TREA), [e-mail]

[MADem]

1. If Obama wants to be a one term President, he'll go after TFL.

If the Democratic Congress wants to flip to GOP, they'll vote to get rid of it.

What I've heard is that some of Obama's people want to seriously increase the out-of-pocket costs for Tricare (Standard and Prime). That's a lead balloon, too, IMO.

[TahitiNut]

3. If we had adequate Universal Health Care (HR676?), it'd be moot.

:shrug:

[MADem]

4. Not really. TFL is a promise made to career service personnel.

Even if we get universal health care, TFL should remain a thing unto itself. It's not a question of affordability, it's covering all costs (in conjunction with MEDICARE Part B). With TFL, too, retirees can access medical care at military facilities overseas--it's space A, but there's usually space to accomodate them.

I don't think Obama's goal is to change the system overmuch, he's more focused on the affordability issue for people:
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/
Barack Obama will make health insurance affordable and accessible to all:
The Obama-Biden plan provides affordable, accessible health care for all Americans, builds on the existing healthcare system, and uses existing providers, doctors and plans to implement the plan.

Obama will lower health care costs:
The Obama plan will lower health care costs by $2,500 for a typical family by investing in health information technology, prevention and care coordination.

Promote public health:
Obama and Biden will require coverage of preventive services, including cancer screenings, and will increase state and local preparedness for terrorist attacks and natural disasters.

[Captain Hilts]

5. As a retiree, Dad had a LOT of medical benefits taken from him, but I don't know about this...

and might I add - the Republican Congress and president - Reagan - took the most.

[MADem]

6. They did--LTC was one of the things that used to be a given. It's not anymore.

And if you're HOSPITALIZED, there's an annual maximum outlay (it's a few grand) before TFL kicks in. Medicare will sometimes cover some of it.

Ronnie's service as a Hellcat of the Navy apparently didn't give him sufficient empathy for the career servicemember. We retirees are, at this stage, simply trying to hold the line and not let them chip away at any more. It's important, I think, for a nation to honor that promise.

[TahitiNut]

7. (cough) (You DO know that was a movie, right? Yup. I knew you did.)

:rofl:

[MADem]

9. Tip O'Neill used to tell a story about Ronnie

where he said he was left with the impression that Ronnie recalled his "Hellcats" experience as actual service!

It no doubt was tongue-in-cheek but it was kinda funny....more "Hellcats" trivia, courtesy of Larry King and Ronnie, himself:

KING: I like the one you did with Nancy. The Navy one.

REAGAN: Oh, yes.

KING: That's a good film.

REAGAN: Well...

KING: I like that movie. See that a lot.

REAGAN: That was from a book written by Admiral Nimitz. And it was about an operation that took place in World War II in which a whole flotilla of our submarines went into the Sea of Japan, went to the bottom, and laid there until a signal to come up. And then they came up to wipe -- virtually wipe out the Japanese merchant marine, which was getting the supplies for Japan from the mainland, from China. And it was a very...

(CROSSTALK)

REAGAN: ...operation.

Well, the title of the book was "Operation Hellcat." But the studio decided to change the name to "Hellcats of the Navy."

KING: "Hellcats of the Navy." Yes.

REAGAN: And I thought they should have stuck with the first title.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING: "Hellcats of the Navy" was released in 1957. It was the only movie the future president and first lady made together.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0406/13/lkl.00.html

[Captain Hilts]

8. What can you say about a movie that names a submarine after a kind of airplane! True about the...

benefits.

I remember my dad sitting down and calculating what he'd lost in the '80s. And he was a retired 06. I can't imagine how enlisted folks got screwed over.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. sounds like the usual RW bs talking points

____________ is going to take our guns

________________is going to cut our benefits

______________ is going to....

Let's wait and see