GOP Candidate Says Military Retirees Must Pay More for Health Care

[KamaAina]

And it's the rah-rah pro-war guy!

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/07/09/gop-candidate-military-retirees-must-pay-more-for-health-care.html

Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina and GOP presidential candidate, said military retirees will eventually have to pay more for their health care.

In a speech Wednesday at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C., Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the fee structure under the military health care program known as Tricare hasn't changed with any significance in two decades.

"The retired Tricare community is going to have to increase over time the amount they pay to make it sustainable," he said. "About 5 percent of the money to pay Tricare bills comes from the patient population. In the private sector, it's about 20 [percent]. So over time, we're going to have to ask Tricare retirees to contribute more to make Tricare more sustainable."...

Troop advocates argue overall defense spending soared with the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that personnel costs as a percentage of the defense budget remained flat at about a third of the spending plan.

[Wilms]

1. Whatever happened to "Support the Troops"?

[KamaAina]

3. Their attitude towards vets is similar to their attitude towards children

expressed as "Life begins at conception and ends at birth."

[Uncle Joe]

4. That only applies when they're at the cannon fodder stage,

even then it's more rhetoric than reality.

Flying the flag or wearing a patriotic lapel pin being the most obvious means of support, waging unfunded wars based on lies is another.

[Angry Dragon]

13. that is only until it costs money

[TexasProgresive]

2. They only support our troops as cannon fodder

It really pains them when military people return home injured, wanting jobs or what was promised them. The Pukes prefer the brave and valorous to come home in a bag. I hope this doesn't offend anyone but it is the pattern I have seen over my life. I am in the middle of 5 generations who have served the U.S. in the military - all branches except the Coast Guard.

[1939]

7. As we said during the cutbacks of the 1970s after Vietnam

Shot at and missed, shit at and hit.

Lots of guys got put out on the street with little or nothing after 8-10-12-14-16 years of service..

[TexasProgresive]

14. My Dad counseled Nam vets

as an employment counselor for the state of Louisiana. There was so much anger in these men that he was sure one or more would snap. I guess their sense of duty out weighed their anger.

[MADem]

5. EFF him!

We worked those 18 hour days in part for the very "deferred compensation" that TRICARE provides.

As it is, we were promised FREE health care for life--it ain't free by a long shot. And they should come up with a dental plan that doesn't suck, too...but hey, whatever.

Typical Republican bullshit from a typical Republican bullshitter...

[TheCowsCameHome]

6. Way to go, Lindsey.

Your numbers couldn't get much lower, anyway.

[hifiguy]

8. Every day they find a new low to sink to.

And they're already in the Marianas Trench.

[0rganism]

9. still hoping for the GOP to put up a Trump/Graham ticket

c'mon, you know this would be perfect... basket case + closet case = pure comedy gold
oh please! let me have this.

[msongs]

10. medicare for all/single payer will cover military, tricare/VA no longer needed for medical

issues

[gratuitous]

11. Oh sure, it sounds nice

But what if someone I don't like gets treatment for a totally preventable condition, like excess ear wax? Waste! Fraud! Abuse!

[angryvet]

12. bet he won't make this statement

to the VFW, American Legion or VVA. Guess he thinks he has some cover since he is a vet. It doesn't give him cover.

[haele]

15. Really. So you have a 45 year old disabled medical retiree who living on disability...

Disability plus maybe a minimum wage equivalent of volunteer or temp work, because they have too much pain or there's no full-time work around that they are capable of doing and they need to be near reliable veteran's services to continue to be functional. Making just enough to scrape by - because they were 1) lower ranked enlisted, and 2)they've had only 8 or 12 years in service before they had to leave, and Disability is a percentage of your T&R when you got out. For every officer living off retirement or disability, there are at least 40 enlisted. There's a lot of vets out there like that, just trying to make it month to month with family and friends usually shouldering a good deal of the cost of living on disability.
Not to mention a lot of retirees had gone through their service without a significant "skill", so when they did retire, they were pretty much capable of just pulling down retail lower level management or similar type job that has low wages, little advancement and few benefits.
While Grandpa might be able to make a good living as a shoe salesman and his pension...but now?

How is s/he going to pay that additional 15% increase in costs that are being proposed? Is Graham also suggesting that they going to means test Tricare like they do Medicaid and the VA?

Or are the Republicans going to propose a Single Payer system, so it doesn't matter if a patient has Tricare, Medicaid, VA, BIA medical, or any other medical program in this country? I wager that I would be hunt down and eaten by Jesus riding a velociraptor before that happens.

Haele

[1939]

17. No 40-1 ratio

While in a line company you might have a 30-40 to 1 ratio of officers to enlisted, the officer strength of the active army is more like 10%. Given the likelihood that officers may be more likely to stay after their original term of service, i would think the retiree ranks are more like 25% officers to enlisted.

Once a retiree turns 65, they go under "Tricare For Life" which picks up all of the deductibles and co-pays of Medicare. There is still a reasonable co-pay for prescription drugs. Like Medicare, Tricare has no dental coverage (though you are eligible to buy a very worthless dental policy).