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everyone, retirees and the working Joe, in the private sector are faced with the same broken promises and rises in their health care costs...everyone has to give a little Ollie...And it seems Mr Obama isn't happy with his Obama care making health insurance go up for most. He also has to make sure that the Military retiree pays more too. (Remember when we were promised free healthcare as part of our service contract?)
The same week TRICARE announced their new TRICARE Prime enroll*ment fees, the admin*is*tra*tion pro*posed a brand new $200 annual fee for TRICARE for Life (the Medicare sup*ple*ment for mil*i*tary retirees and their depen*dents who are older than 65). If adopted, this new enroll*ment fee would be charged begin*ning in 2013, and it would grad*u*ally increase. Accord*ing to the White House the pro*posal would save $6.7 bil*lion over 10 years.
The White House also pro*posed a new TRICARE pre*scrip*tion med*ica*tion co-pay struc*ture. Under the plan retirees would see co-pays rise based a per*cent*age for*mula tied to gov*ern*ment costs. Accord*ing to a report by Tom Philpott, generic drugs at retail would be set at 10 per*cent of the Defense Departments cost for the med*i*cine and this would climb to 20 per*cent after 2013. Co-pays for brand names would start at 15 per*cent of cost and be raised to 30 per*cent over an as yet unspec*i*fied period.
Read more: http://militaryadvantage.military.com/2011/10/more-tricare-fee-increases-proposed/#ixzz1ZovtW6NI
MilitaryAdvantage.Military.com
Yes I'll be writing to my congressman and senators and the White House again...............
I hate it as much as you do, but i am not as certain as you are, that government and military employees should not be faced with what we all face in the real world of health care in the USA.
Be thankful that you still have Tricare to pay the 20% that Medicare does not pay....
The leading question before the justices is whether in requiring most Americans to buy insurance, Congress exceeded its power to regulate interstate commerce. The case is on track to be heard by March, and a ruling would come by the end of June, just before the Republican and Democratic conventions for the 2012 presidential election. The law known as the Affordable Care Act, intended to extend medical care nationwide, is the centerpiece of the Obama domestic agenda, and all major GOP presidential candidates oppose it.
The legal challengers, including a group of 26 states, say the law went beyond federal power and, if allowed to stand, would hurt small businesses and compromise individual choices on medical care. "This is going to be the most heavily covered Supreme Court case in history, even more so than Bush v. Gore, because that was so compressed," says Washington lawyer Thomas Goldstein, who argues regularly at the court, referring to the 2000 presidential election dispute that lasted just over a month. "This will run from today until the summer." Goldstein, who oversees the popular "scotusblog" that tracks the court's actions, calls the health care dispute "the perfect storm of a pocketbook issue that's also part of an ideological war between the parties in an election year."
The cases the court agreed to hear Monday test the constitutional merits of the law, but the court said it would also address an important threshold question about the timing of claims. The question is whether the provision requiring the purchase of insurance cannot be challenged until someone actually has been penalized in 2014, or later, for not complying with the mandate. The health care overhaul, signed by President Obama in March 2010, extends insurance coverage to more than 30 million Americans. Among its most controversial provisions are those that require most people to purchase insurance by 2014 or face a tax penalty and that expand Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor.
The group of states, National Federation of Independent Business and individual challengers who want to avoid paying for insurance say that if the law stands, it will mean costly new burdens for states and businesses. They have urged the justices to resolve the dispute quickly because of uncertainty about future business costs. The U.S. Department of Justice, defending the law, urged the court to resolve the controversy, so agencies can begin preparing for the health care overhaul that the White House compares to such landmarks as the Social Security Act of 1935 and Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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A Gallup survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults found that 47 percent favor the repeal of healthcare reform, versus 42 percent who want the law kept in place. Eleven percent had no opinion. But the survey also showed that 50 percent of Americans believe the federal government has a responsibility to make sure everyone has health coverage, compared with 46 percent who do not. The results, which have a 4 percentage point margin of error, suggest a sharply divided U.S. public as the Supreme Court prepares to begin hearing legal arguments next March from 26 states and an independent business group that want the law struck down as unconstitutional. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would extend health coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans by expanding Medicaid and establishing special state-run insurance markets called exchanges.
The law is Obama's signature domestic policy achievement, and a high court decision to overturn the reforms could deal a severe blow to his re-election prospects in the middle of the 2012 presidential campaign. A ruling to retain it could help his campaign. The Supreme Court would be expected to rule by July. Obama, a Democrat, is opposed by a field of Republican candidates who want the healthcare reform law repealed as a symbol of an intrusive government seeking to raise taxes and burden businesses with new regulation. Public opposition to the law, particularly among the elderly, helped Republicans wrest control of the House of Representatives from Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections.
But advocates of the reforms say the law will reduce the soaring growth of healthcare costs over time and provide medical care to millions of families who currently have no protection. The November 3-6 Gallup poll also showed a small reduction in public support for private insurance as the basis for gaining medical services in the $2.6 trillion U.S. healthcare system. The findings said 56 percent of adults continue to prefer private insurance versus 39 percent who would favor a government-run system. That compares with a 61 percent to 34 percent margin a year ago.
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