For the American taxpayers however, here is the deal. Military retirement begins around age 38 for enlisted and 42 or so for officers. These folks are mostly working another full time job that would offer them health insurance yet the taxpayers are paying to the tune of $15,000/year to cover them through Tricare.
I made up the $15,000/year number but that is what my Blue Cross family plan costs my employer.
If these folks can have access to a good insurance plan - have them use it and give them the option to jump back to Tricare if they need it.
The other issue is retirees are living longer and longer - yay! But..... to cover them fully from age 40 or so requires over 40 years of medical benefits.
Did I miss something here? When did the American taxpayer get to vote on the salt marsh mouse (150 mil), the honeybees (@150 mil), the mormon cricket (100 mil) the parking lot in Puerto Rico (150 mil). These 4 projects tallies to the equivalent of VA charging private insurers (540 mil). Last time I checked the salt marsh did not put their life on the line day in day out to uphold our constitution. Is Obama now the Pied Piper and these mice will defend our country?
Bullet has tinitus due to the high drone jet noise for 20 yrs. There is no flyer that I know of that has not walked out without hearing disabilities. Are you truly suggesting that his new company pick up the cost that the military caused? He gave 20 + yrs defending every American, and his thanks is sorry you were injured, but we can't afford to give you medical care, because we need to spend 335 million on condoms!
Our President and his wife state that the military family is of main concern. So what does he do? Tell them, that their medical benefits will be cut! Do they understand how medical insurance works with any employer? They have a small cavet that is called
pre-existing. I have friends that work for airlines as pilots, they have to use the VA because they have pre-existing conditions. (For Bullet, Tinitus is pre-existing, thus Aetna is not forced to cover that). We, personally elected to do Tri-Care STD and not prime, b/c with Aetna we don't have to fight for referrals, we can call any specialty doc without waiting months for the referral. As a ret. spouse in NoVA over 40, my wait time for a mam is 6 -9 mos, using Aetna I am in the next day.
As far as old grad and a disease later on in life like Leukemia, yes! My father died of AML (Adult Myelonic Lukemia) when he was 57. It was determined during his battle with the diease that Benzene caused it, he was a chemist and spent days playing with chemicals. He worked with Benzene 20 yrs prior to his diagnosis. Nobody knows if in 20 yrs from now JP-8 will cause particular cancers.
Finally, as a retired dependent my children and I were unable to use any base hospital due to the inability to accept new retirees. Here are the hospitals that no longer accept new retirees as of Oct 2008
1. Ft. Belvoir, VA
2. Quantico, VA
3. Prince William Family Clinic (it is only for military, but not on a base)
4. Andrews AFB
5. Bolling AFB
6. Ft Meade
7. Walter Reed
8. Bethesda
We had no other option, but to use Tri-Care and Aetna. OBTW our Aetna program is so good that Tri-Care is never employed. However, that's not the point. The point is our family paid in spades for 20 yrs and now their promise to give us free life time medical care is now in jeopardy and it looks like this administration has decided to balance the budget those that served will pay another toll