Congress won’t let him get away with this, but it is indicative of how seriously the administration is out to corral as many people as possible and put them in Obamacare insurance exchanges.
The 2013 defense budget will force active duty and retired military to pay more for their health insurance. Gallingly, unionized civilian defense workers will not suffer the same fate.
The proposal is causing a major rift within the Pentagon, according to U.S. officials. Several congressional aides suggested the move is designed to increase the enrollment in Obamacare’s state-run insurance exchanges.
The disparity in treatment between civilian and uniformed personnel is causing a backlash within the military that could undermine recruitment and retention.
The proposed increases in health care payments by service members, which must be approved by Congress, are part of the Pentagon’s $487 billion cut in spending. It seeks to save $1.8 billion from the Tricare medical system in the fiscal 2013 budget, and $12.9 billion by 2017.
Many in Congress are opposing the proposed changes, which would require the passage of new legislation before being put in place.
“We shouldn’t ask our military to pay our bills when we aren’t willing to impose a similar hardship on the rest of the population,” Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and a Republican from California, said in a statement to the Washington Free Beacon. “We can’t keep asking those who have given so much to give that much more.”
Administration officials told Congress that one goal of the increased fees is to force military retirees to reduce their involvement in Tricare and eventually opt out of the program in favor of alternatives established by the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
Just how much more does the administration want our retired and active duty soldiers to pay?
Under the new plan, the Pentagon would get the bulk of its savings by targeting under-65 and Medicare-eligible military retirees through a tiered increase in annual Tricare premiums that will be based on yearly retirement pay.
Significantly, the plan calls for increases between 30 percent to 78 percent in Tricare annual premiums for the first year. After that, the plan will impose five-year increases ranging from 94 percent to 345 percent—more than 3 times current levels.
According to congressional assessments, a retired Army colonel with a family currently paying $460 a year for health care will pay $2,048.
The new plan hits active duty personnel by increasing co-payments for pharmaceuticals and eliminating incentives for using generic drugs.
Not very subtle, are they?
As the 2014 date approaches when Obamacare will be implemented, the administration may be worried that not enough new insureds will be added to the pool, thus continuing to drive the cost of health care through the roof. Forcing a couple of million retirees and active duty military to abandon Tricare for Obamacare or Medicare is one card they can play.
Well, our new amnestied citizens will have to have their entitlements paid for somehow. More trendy, diverse group anyway than military guys. Thanks for all those years away from home, boys! Don’t call us, we’ll call you.
Actually, for some of us, the increase would be infinite percent. I pay for health insurance through my job, and my family and I are double covered under Tricare standard- which has no premiums. Under ther proposals, I would now have to pay $140 a year for family coverage. With reduced benefits to the point that I would probably get no benefit at all from Tricare- becasue I pay for insurance through my job. And, apparently I cannot opt out. Meaning it would somehow be automatically deducted from my retirement pay, which isn’t going to increase this year, at least.
Breaking promises, breaking the Constitution, it’s what Obama is all about.
“Congress won’t let him get away with this:
We have heard this before haven’t we?
I’m a retired Army NCO, 24 years of service, give or take a few months. They sign me up each time with a promise of free medical care when I retired. Now, when I’m too damned old to get a job – not to work, to get hired – they want to cut my health benefits? Nice. You have to remember – I had forgotten this bit of wisdom until I started typing – what the politicians and other parasites always say about the military. “Oh, nothing’s too good for Our Boys in Uniform!” – and among themselves, “And that’s what they’ll get: nothing.”; “It’s the least we can do for them!” – among themselves: “Yeah, and that’s why we’re not sticking it to them worse.”
Somebody needs to read up about the Bonus Army back in the days or years after World War 1. When those worthless bastards in the Federal government take a cut in their benefits, I’ll accept the same one in mine, without complaining (too much).
There are very few DoD civilians who belong to a union.
I’ll only make one short comment!
The government DIDN’t conceive this bucket of crap! Two of those wonderful private sector non partisan intellectual think tanks and primarily the Defense Business Board task force came of with the bucket of crap!
Promises, promises. After 28 years service, deployments and numerous service-connected health problems, the medical care was one of the biggest draws to keeping me (and 100s of thousands of others) in the service. And I served when pay was quite modest and promotions fairly slow. I keep thinking “This is the last straw.” I swear Obama must have a cadre of devious people up 24/7/365 to keep coming up ways to screw us. I don’t know when and where, but there has to be a tipping point for tolerance which will boil over some time. The only time 99% of civilian Federal government workers are away from their families is when they go on a tax-payer funded boondoggle. Conservatives in Congress need to produce a graphic about the health care available to Congress versus the amount they pay for it and drive it home in every speech, news conference and media appearance they make.
How dare the military not unionize?