Fuck off and die assholes.  

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/pentagon/2014/12/19/military-health-program-tricare/20654019/

The Defense Department could slash its enormous health care budget by requiring Tricare beneficiaries not on active duty to get health care coverage through Affordable Care Act exchanges, according to several current and former congressional budget experts.

In the past several budget cycles, the Pentagon has sought to reduce its $52 billion health budget by asking Congress to approve cost-savings measures that include increased Tricare fees for retirees, fees for Tricare For Life beneficiaries and cost-shares for active-duty families.

Some proposals, such as reducing prescription costs by promoting use of military and mail-order pharmacies, have been implemented, but for the most part, Congress has resisted changes to the status quo for those who use the military health system and its private health care network.

Just another step to single payer.  Anyone that didn't see this coming was blind.

Cut welfare instead.

Meh, everyone is getting shafted on retirement and healthcare.

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What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

The fuck do you think tri-care is?

At the same time, it is very difficult to make even the most reasonable changes to military benefits. Talk about a third rail...

Only if congress gets the same healthcare as we do.

I never saw this coming

Everyone who opposed it knew this was coming.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Dream on. The about just had a General Strike on Capitol Hill when they were told they would have to kick in a couple of thousand a year.

Yep.

.gov civilians will probably happen sooner than later, too.

Medicare and Medicaid have multiple 10s of
billion of dollars in "improper payments".  (See this 2011 GAO Report
for example.)
All federal entitlement
programs have issues with fraud/ waste/ abuse.
All federal departments and agencies have issues with fraud/ waste/ abuse.
Eliminating even a portion of the fraud/ waste/ abuse would save more money than
gutting Tricare.
If we can no longer afford to abide by the terms of the agreement
in-place during a service member's term of service, then how about we treat everyone who draws federal funds of any manner exactly the same.
Apply it equally across the board to everyone drawing a federal
paycheck, retirement check, or "assistance" funds after
addressing the fraud/ waste/ abuse.
Everyone on O'care.
No "assistance" from Uncle for anyone to pay for purchasing an approved plan.
That includes our "esteemed" elected officials and political appointees, and their families and staff members.
I've said it before and I'll say it again.
IMHO, in the grand scheme of our budgetary woes, attempting to balance budgets on the backs of the mil service members and retirees and vets amounts to nothing more than more kabuki theater.  It is a despicable, disgusting, and dishonorable way to treat people who
voluntarily give up their best years, body parts, mental state or their lives in service to their
country.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Ditto

They should definitely do this, piss off millions of retirees and active military working towards retirement today.  

At least when it comes time to remove the rot at our core this will be one group of people helping to man the ladders during the assault.

So bump up the co-pay to 4k and profit.  The less they do, the better off we are.  

We printed nearly 5x that much money in a single month not all that long ago.


This is complete bullshit.   We can't "afford" any of this, but there is no reason we can't "afford" military healthcare any more or less than anything else.


We'll print hundreds of billions to give free shit to worthless fucks, but we won't take care of our service members... hopefully the service members remember that ...

Except for the people who won't work for it.

NOT ONLY NO BUT FUCK NO...............    

FPNI

I've looked at the healthcare exchange for my state and region, and I have to be honest.  The same insurance I have through my employer is offered through the exchanges at similar prices.   I guess it varies by state, so maybe it's not the same everywhere.  

As far as the military goes, most of the retirees were promised free healthcare for life.  If we want to phase out this benefit, we should start with new enlistments, not the old guys that were promised the benefit and are at a point in their life where they need it most, and can ill afford a change.

With that said, if the exchanges can provide them the same level of coverage for less cost then I'm all for it.  I think one of the big cost savings would be to get rid of the VA hospitals.  At one time (long ago) they provided healthcare to veterans that they couldn't get elsewhere.  But that's changed.  Why have these huge regional VA facilities and the overhead and bureaucracy that goes along with them, now?  Just allow the vets to use local providers and hospitals.  

 

Google the Bonus March of 1932. Time for it again?