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This article needs your attention now! There is a move on to destroy the military “Tricare for Life”; this is the military insurance program that takes care of all our military. Please distribute this to everyone! If we don’t stop this now, all of our fighting men and woman will be deprived of the benefits that they have earned with their blood.

Be aware of what is taking place on our benefits. Know who your congressman are, to contact and voice your concerns.

PLEASE READ IT IS VERY IMPORTANT
FOR ALL MILITARY RETIREES AND SPOUSES!

Many have asked us to get the word out and forward the following message. Although Tricare for Life is written as law, things can change without the military retiree knowing the horrible consequences of a change in the law. This will affect all military retirees whether you are Medicare eligible or not at this time. Many of us have lived the nightmare of trying to receive adequate and/or continuity of care before Tricare for Life was enacted. Tricare for Life gave us the ability to receive the best care possible regardless of availability of care in the military system - we have been able to receive honorable and wonderful care. This could change!

TRICARE FOR LIFE'S FUTURE....
Tricare For Life was instituted to correct the broken promise that military retirees would receive free healthcare coverage for life and it covers the Medicare co-pay.

Now a heavy assault has begun on Veterans'/Retirees' benefits to pay for other programs our President Elect promised during the campaign . An it is a high priority of his administration. The one item most of interest to Retired Military is in Article 189. If approved by Congress the first assault wave would hit in 2011 and would hit hard. It would initiate cost sharing to require retirees to pay the first $525 of medical cost and 50% of the next $4,725 for a first year cost of $2,888 per person. It would be indexed to increase with inflation. A reason given for this action (for PR effect) is "overuse" by Retirees.

For those of you who are covered by TFL you will want to pay attention (Below) to what BG Bob Clements has surfaced about the future of TFL.
In any case, on page 189 of the Congressional Budget Office report, see the note below on how to get to that spot, there is a strong recommendation to eventually eliminate the program as it is too expensive.

Just another move to slight those of us who dedicated much of our adult lives to the defense of our country.

Strongly recommend that you contact your elected officials and register your strong opposition to the elimination of the TFL program.
Heads-up from BG Bob Clements,USAF Ret(P38 Bob) The following has been added to the Congressional Budget Office Web Site http://www.cbo.gov/
a. Budget, Options, Volume 1: Health Care ( http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=9925)

For those who have never opened one of these web sites from OMB :
1. double click on the above URL
2. click on PDF
3. click on the binoculars
4. do a search for TFL

Now here it is folks and I will guarantee if you sit around on your behind and do nothing about it as they bring these options forward this coming year, you will lose one of the best healthcare benefits that the Medicare eligible retired military have. It is short of the promises made that we fought so hard for back in the late 90's and early 2000's but it is still the best healthcare program that anyone in the United States has, bar none.
People who are professionals always look for the channel of least resistance when it comes to cutting money out of the Federal and DOD budget. I can tell you this straight on, military retirees are one of those channels of least resistance noted for sitting around, doing nothing, and waiting for ole Joe to do it for them. You had better wake up. Your medical benefits are prime target. If you lose them, you have nobody to blame but yourself. Let me repeat that ... you have nobody to blame but yourself.

The way to secure your benefits is to write to your members of Congress and to keep writing and writing and writing. ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH!! Keep repeating the above statement until you are blue in the face.

Now I'm going to make one more statement to all of you younger people out there who are not yet eligible for Tricare for Life. HEALTH CARE WILL EVENTUALLY BECOME THE DOMINATING FACTOR IN YOUR LIFE. Remember that . . . it will impact you big time with the utmost in cruelty unless you are fortunate enough to die from a heart attack . . or get run over by a truck.

The service organizations will put up a fight, but, they will need your help and can't do it by themselves. If you are not a member of MOAA (http://www.moaa.org/), join now and give yourself another voice to contact your members of Congress.

I hope this makes it clear as to what you can expect if you do nothing.

To show you how stupid these professionals can be at times just read the data on the noted sites closely. You will see that in spite of the MTF's (Military Treatment Facility) need to get patients back to keep their doctors busy and the hospitals from going to clinic status, these people from OMB would employ a means to keep retirees from using MTF facilities by charging them a fee for services. How dumb can you get.

Even if you are an Obama fan, and believe that change cometh, TFL option from OMB will not go away. They need the money they spend on you for other programs for people who produce nothing but votes to keep their boss in office. We will never get this earned system of healthcare again and present and future military retirees will be short-changed again.
If you know of anyone who is Retired Military, please forward this on to them.