Here is the latest on the increase to TRICARE for retires
House Plan Blocks TRICARE Increase
Week of May 09, 2011
The House of Representatives 2012 defense budget proposal includes provisions that would protect military retirees from the Department of Defense's plan to increase TRICARE premiums and fees for yet another year. Given DoD's need to somehow cover for rapidly increasing cost of TRICARE, some veteran's groups are now willing to accept some moderate increases tied to the annual cost-of-living-allowance (COLA) rate. However, DoD is hoping to peg the rate increases to the much more aggressive National Health Expenditure index, which could save the DoD $3.2 billion.
My wife and I are over 65 and would not be as affected as those retires under 65. That said, I still cannot agree with the increase based on NHE or Cost of Living. No retire has recieved a Cost of Living increase in retirement or social security for two years.
Tricare For Life is a good deal and saves my family a lot of money but it does not approach the Cadillac Plan that Congress has.
For the record,
Again a misconception is out there that Government employees no matter who they are or where they work have a great medical plan. I admit from the exert below they do when and if something happens while working in DC. But they still pay 1/3 and the government pays 2/3rds while in there home state. I paid 300+ a month and was still left with a hefty bill after a 1 week hospital stay when I worked as a GS and had GEHA, Government Employee Health Insurance. This was prior to being able to use TRICARE as a secondary. I agree with Marshall that TFL is the best when over 65. However it is not as effective when under 65 and used as a secondary in my experience. It should NOT be tied to any Government COLA or NHE National Healthcare Expenditure. The NHE sounds like an insurance companies CEO dream, def:
National Health Expenditures home page ... ; Bureau of Labor Statistics; Bureau of the Census; National Center for Health Statistics; Department of Treasury; Employee Benefit Research Institute; Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality - Medical Expenditure Panel Survey;
www.cms.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/
Chuck
Better than the average family, who spends 1/5 to 1/6 on healthcare. Even if most congressmen would pay that, they're still get pretty fat pockets.
If House and Senate members choose to use the Capitol attending physician and the Army and Navy hospitals while in D.C., they pay an annual fee (equivalent to being part of an HMO). If they seek private medical care while in D.C. or back in their home states, they use their private health insurance. If they are over 65, they use Medicare and whatever private supplemental insurance they may carry.
And, of course, they paid into Medicare while working just like everyone else.
Members of Congress are eligible - like all other federal employees - to sign up for one of the "cafeteria" health insurance plans offered all other federal employees. If they sign up for one of these policies, the federal government pays two-thirds of the premium and the Congressman pays the other one-third. This is comparable to insurance offered by many private employers.
I also don't want to see any increase to TRICARE, particularly for those of us "stuck" with standard. I think it will be a battle in the future, because the cost of care is going up, and something will have to be done to deal with it. If they do any changes, I'm hoping they will be grandfathered in for those of us who had counted on the benefit...
I wrote to my senators: They both responded. The democrat indicated support for increases "We all must share..." the republican indicated support for no increase but if required, linking any increase to COLA "We should keep promises made..."
