Pentagon again pushes for Tricare fee increases

[Nonno]

"WASHINGTON – End strength cuts and the demise of the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle program dominated the headlines of the this week’s defense budget conversations, but the financial projections also call for another controversial cost-saving measure: increases in Tricare fees for military retirees.

On Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the military’s future health care costs “unaffordable” and said the department could save up to $7 billion over the next five years with modest increases in Tricare fees for working-age retirees."

Read more here.

 

[Vince]

Knew this was coming. Thought it was going to hold until 2012, but they kept talking about doing it just for us retirees because we're so rich and we can afford the extra medical bills.

 

[Gilligan]

The current Tricare enrollment fee was set in 1995 at $460 a year for the basic family plan and has not been raised since,” Gates told reporters. “During this time, insurance premiums paid by the private sector and other government workers have risen dramatically. For example, the fees for a comparable health insurance program for federal workers costs roughly $5,000 per year

At $460 per year, it's practically free to the beneficiaries, though. Therefore its obviously a huge direct cost to the Pentagon since they are footing almost the entire cost.

Certainly dirt cheap compared to fed workers insurance but..is that 5 grand that Gates references what it costs for retired fed workers to keep their insurance?

 

[Ken King]

At $460 per year, it's practically free to the beneficiaries, though. Therefore its obviously a huge direct cost to the Pentagon since they are footing almost the entire cost.

Certainly dirt cheap compared to fed workers insurance but..is that 5 grand that Gates references what it costs for retired fed workers to keep their insurance?

Being retired (an annuitant) I had more plan options available then when I was employed and was able to reduce my annual cost by close to $2,000 for a comparable pan (my annual fee is just over $3,000).

 

[Rommey]

I wonder what they consider "modest increases".

said the department could save up to $7 billion over the next five years with modest increases in Tricare fees for working-age retirees.
“The current Tricare enrollment fee was set in 1995 at $460 a year for the basic family plan and has not been raised since,” Gates told reporters. “During this time, insurance premiums paid by the private sector and other government workers have risen dramatically. For example, the fees for a comparable health insurance program for federal workers costs roughly $5,000 per year.”

Let's see, they are looking to save $7B and they compare he current fee of $460/yr and the the other federal plan fee of $5,000/yr. I wonder if they consider an increase of 11 times the current rate as "modest".

 

[Gilligan]

I wonder what they consider "modest increases".


".

Very good question. Since increases always (rightly or wrongly) get portrayed as percentages..it would not take much of an increase in dollar terms to make headlines in percentage terms.

 

[HouseCat]

Gates is an idiot. He doesn't stop to take a look at how much more military personnel are being tasked to deploy, 'do more with less', more stringent PT standards (in the AF anyway) and how we are all working longer shifts now. An increase in health care costs should have been expected and planned for; instead, we're being penalized for busting our asses. Thanks ahole. My big fat pay raise Congress screwed me over this year should cover that increase no problem.

 

[Gilligan]

Gates is an idiot. He doesn't stop to take a look at how much more military personnel are being tasked to deploy, 'do more with less', more stringent PT standards (in the AF anyway) and how we are all working longer shifts now. An increase in health care costs should have been expected and planned for; instead, we're being penalized for busting our asses. Thanks ahole. My big fat pay raise Congress screwed me over this year should cover that increase no problem.

Umm..the article indicated that Gates was only talking about increases for "working age military retirees"...so not you or any other active duty folks..and not for retired military that are beyond civilian retirement age..apparently.

 

[HouseCat]

Umm..the article indicated that Gates was only talking about increases for "working age military retirees"...so not you or any other active duty folks..and not for retired military that are beyond civilian retirement age..apparently.

I'm retiring soon... should have mentioned that.

 

[itsbob]

At $460 per year, it's practically free to the beneficiaries, though. Therefore its obviously a huge direct cost to the Pentagon since they are footing almost the entire cost.

Certainly dirt cheap compared to fed workers insurance but..is that 5 grand that Gates references what it costs for retired fed workers to keep their insurance?

It only costs $460 a year if you DON"T USE IT so the cost to the government for THAT person would be ZERO.

Now if you count in all the deductibles and what is and what isn't covered, , and the "Un-Allowed" cost the cost to the individual is 10 times that.

AND since it's a RETIREMENT benefit, it should be talked about in relationship to the retirement amount one receives every year, and what percentage of their retirement goes to medical costs.

Pre-tax this almost accounts for 20% of my retirement pay (we are one of the unlucky families that used 100% of our deductible and reach the catastrophic caps every year). After tax it accounts for nearly 30%.

AND if the pentagon can't afford to pay for medical coverage (- our $4000 a year contribution)for the SMALL percentage of veterans there are in the US, how in the hell does Congress think they can afford to pay 100% of it for EVERYone (or at least the 20% that isn't currently covered)?

 

[Gilligan]

It only costs $460 a year if you DON"T USE IT so the cost to the government for THAT person would be ZERO.?

?? You lost me. So its not like regular health insurance then, where you pay a fixed annual premium for a given set of benefits, specified deductions, etc?

I'm sorry..I was operating under the assumption that it was. So you pay a minimum base rate of $460 and then additional 'premiums' beyond that depending on what services you end up using?

 

[Vince]

uh huh.

I wonder why it wasn't increased in 2008, 2009, 2010 when Gates SUGGESTED the very same thing. I wonder why it didn't go up by 50% like a certain someone on this forum said was absolutely going to happen this year.

I got my bill in December. It's the same price it's been for as long as I can remember.

I hope I'm dead wrong and it fails to go up again as it has in previous years because it's only going to cost me more money. :shrug:

 

[itsbob]

?? You lost me. So its not like regular health insurance then, where you pay a fixed annual premium for a given set of benefits, specified deductions, etc?

I'm sorry..I was operating under the assumption that it was. So you pay a minimum base rate of $460 and then additional 'premiums' beyond that depending on what services you end up using?

It's NOT like employer based insurance as there is NO policy. The government and the retire don't buy a part of a (for example) $6000 a year health insurance policy, there is no shared cost at the beginning.

If you don't use your retiree health insurance for a year, your cost is $460, the government cost is ZERO. Whereas an employer heath insurance there is a cost to both parties whether it is used or not. Employee pays his part (usually half or less) and the Employer pays the remainder. Employee MAY incure additional costs as to deductibles and allowables, but the Employer has paid all he is going to pay.

TriCare/ ChampVA has it's deductibles, and allowables that are paid out when you use it (just like "normal insurance")), but believe when you talk about costs of insurance these SHOULD be included so you can actually see how much heathcare REALLY costs if you need to use it.

When Gates says retirees only pay $460 a year for insurance/ health care he's lying out his ass, UNLESS he says, "For those retirees that pay $460 a year for their health coverage, the cost to the government is ZERO!"

 

[Mongo53]

This from the Party and Administration that support the Dream Act that equates Attending College as the same as Military Service for consideration of benefits.

The same Party and Administration that suggested Veterans should use their own Health Insurance for treating injuries from Combat.

Everybody is going to have to feel the pain, sadly, even those that are the least deserving to feel that pain, will have to feel it, so we can fix the problem.

Sadly, I think we are going to see people screaming, the programs deserving the most to have the cuts to the massive fraud and abuse in their incredibly bloated budgets, shouldn't be cut and we should be cutting benefits for the people that have done the most to deserve the benefits they get.

I think itsbob point was that Tricare has numerous options and co-pays, the figure of $460 per year cost to an individual is an unfair summation. The only way that figure applies is if that person is NOT costing the government one red cent in health care costs, just maintaining their tri-care for insurance against catastrophic illness or injury, or when they will eventually need to use it later in life. i.e. pay into the system for when they will taking more out of it later, when their costs will go up as well at that point. If the individual is costing the government in health care costs, their out pocket expenses are a lot higher than $460 a year, and likely they have paid into the program a lot more then they took out for many years before that.

This is like Hillary Clinton visiting a Military Base for the first time in her life, when she was the First Lady, and marveled about the base Gym and Rec Facilities and suggesting, if the government provides this for the Military, why doesn't it provide for all Americans? She never was told that the Government doesn't provide the Gym and Rec Facilities, they all come from MWR that gets it money from the profits paid by the military members themselves through the exchange/px/commissary system.

Yes, you can argue that the government being the seed for the profit does have a hand in providing those benefits for military members; BUT, the Military has set up more efficient system to provide these benefits for the Military Members deserving it and pay into it themselves, that is NOT the same as a bloated and inefficient government provided benefits for people that have done absolutely nothing to pay into it or to even deserve it.

 

[Pete]

I have no problem with it

 

[BadGirl]

I have no problem with it

Well, yeah, that's because you're rich.

 

[Pete]

Well, yeah, that's because you're rich.

Well yea :shrug:

Not hardly

If they even doubled it it would still be head and shoulders better than anything else.

I am just not one to point at someone else and say "You need to suck it up and cut" but convulse and if a belt tightening measure targets me. We are all in this together and the ideas of "scared cows" is not going to work.

 

[Pete]

She never was told that the Government doesn't provide the Gym and Rec Facilities, they all come from MWR that gets it money from the profits paid by the military members themselves through the exchange/px/commissary system.

.

I do not believe this is completely true. Not all MWR is funded via that revenue, some of it is appropriated funds.

 

[MMDad]

I have no problem with it

That's because they said "working age retirees" and not you old farts.

What if they raise your our of pocket but don't make the other needed cuts?

I have no problem with them raising the price for Tricare as long as it is only one of the multitude of spending cuts they need to make. The cuts that need to happen will hurt all of us, and nothing should be "off the table."

We can't protect classes of people from all cuts, no matter how noble their service was. But that's what will happen. There will be cuts coming, but the exceptions will pile up faster than our debt is rising. Veterans, families with kids, 9/11 survivors, firefighter, cops, teachers, doctors, the poor, minorities, women, endangered species, unions, farmers, fishermen, "green" programs....

The only people who will be forced to take any cuts are those who don't suck the government teat or don't belong to an organization that funds campaigns.

 

[philibusters]

I thinking raising the premium rate should be a no brainer. Nobody is saying that they have to raise the premium to $5,000 like the civilian federal workforce, but the current rate was set in 1995.

Adjusting ONLY for inflation and not for the rising cost of healthcare $460 in 1995 money equals $649 in todays money using the Consumer Price Index to compare the value of 1995 money to 2010 money. Its surprising to think about it, but in inflation adjusted money, people under this plan are only paying 30% less in premiums compared to 1995 for the same benefits (assuming the plan's benefits have changed significantly since 1995)

People complain about the government running deficits but when its their benefits being affected they become very protective. People have to make some adjustments, these adjustments probably won't come close to balancing the budget, but the will keep the deficit from being even more unmanageable.