Part of the Pentagon's current $487 billion budget slash includes a push by the Obama Administration to radically increase what members of our military and military retirees pay for medical coverage.
Retirees are to be hit by massive increases in what they pay for what is called TriCare coverage. A 'means' scale is to be implemented, so that higher ranking retirees will see a larger increase than lower ranks will. An example I saw showed a retired Colonel, currently paying about $460 per year for TriCare health coverage for his family, will end up paying over $2000 for a lower level of coverage. Folks still serving in the military will see their benefits cut, resulting in much more out of pociet to cover health expenses. Increases of up to 345% can be expected for certain retirees.
This is if the budget cuts are held to the current $487 billion. If the stalled work of the Super Committee indeed fails in the end, and the military cuts jump to over a trillion, it is hard to imagine what will happen to our military as a whole - much less just the benefits and cutbacks we are seeing planned for now.
Publicly, this is supposed to be part of the budget cutting process. Privately, Obama Administration thugs have told people in the Pentagon that this move is intended to force military retirees out of Tri-Care and into government supplied Obamacare.
Implementation of this is not supposed to start until 2013, after Obama's recoronation - designed to hide the effects from as many people as possible until after the election - like the majority of Obamacare's insidious details.
Cuts like this have to be legislated, they cannot be mandated by His Highness himself. Congress must produce the legislation and pass it, then send it to Him for signature. One more reason it is imperative to maintain control of the House and take the Senate away from Reid's grubby hands in November.
Curiously, civilian defense employees and retirees, all Federal union members, are not to be affected by these increases. Being members of a Union, and expected to be Obama voters, they are protected.
Monday, February 27, 2012
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Collective bargaining ended under Carter and the federal employee retirement system changed under Regan. We got screwed before the military...Having worked for DoD for over 33 years I can tell you that it is not a bed of roses. It started in 1977 and fully clarified in 2007. GPO will suck the life out of your spouses ability to survive after your death. Comparability Pay Act, I never received what my counter part was paid in the private sector. Retired Contracting Officer typing at you. Suck it up buttercup, plenty of jobs at WallyWorld! HC benefits suck the life out of retired employees. Each and every administration that tried to balance the budget did so on the backs of the workforce. Not news. The proverbial whipping post. And they robbed the retirement funds over 10 times...so warriors we are now in the same boat.
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