Posted on 01/03/2006 8:48:26 PM PST by FreedomCalls
The Joint Chiefs of Staff will endorse a Defense Department plan to raise TRICARE fees sharply over the next three years for under-65 retirees and their families, senior military officers said. ...
As first reported here, defense officials want annual enrollment fees for TRICARE Prime, the military's managed-care plan, to more than triple by October 2008 for working-age retired officers. They would go from $230 for an individual - and $460 for family coverage - to $750 and $1,500, respectively.
The fees would double - to $450 and $900, respectively - for under-65 enlisted retirees.
Retirees who use TRICARE Standard, the military's traditional fee-for-service health insurance, would also see their annual deductibles raised. They also would pay - for the first time - an annual enrollment fee. Beyond 2008, all TRICARE fees and co-payments would be indexed to medical inflation. ...
Those increases would hit not only younger retirees and their families, but Medicare-eligible beneficiaries and active-duty family members, too.
[Excerpt]
(Excerpt) Read more at dailypress.com ...
Well, not much doubt in my retired military mind.
imo
. . . the comparisons now being made between military benefits and medical costs paid by civilians "gloss over the sacrifices those retirees made and the promises made to them."
That's the real issue and it extends beyond raising premiums and co-payments. Not mentioned is the fate of the working age retirees who turn age sixty-five.
Unless something has changed over the last few months, Wilford Hall Medical Center (Lackland AFB) requires retirees reaching age 65 to use civilian services for routine primary care. Access to specialty clinics and hospitalization is still provided . . . for now.
This is depressing. I don't think I'll be telling Mr. Voice until I hear more. No use getting his blood pressure soaring.
Racehorse, are you saying that even with Tricare Prime? Right now I have the whole family enrolled at BAMC.
Whether you choose to tell him or not, do be prepared for something unpleasant to come our way. Strong warnings of impending bad news has been sent for some time now.
Read the following and write your Congress people and professional military associations:
Military struggling with rising health care costs
And the version of this article I received via email back on 13 December:
DoD looks to increase Tricare cost share for under 65 members
Several military related organizations have reported that the Department of Defense is looking at increasing the cost share of the Tricare healthcare program for the under-65 years of age members of the military retiree community.
One such organization, the National Association of the Uniformed Services (NAUS), indicates the proposed increase is the result of concerns about the rising costs of military health care. DoD projects costs rising to $64 billion by 2015, an amount equal to 12 percent of the total defense budget.
DoD, according to NAUS officials, points out that Tricare Prime enrollment fees for the under-65 retiree have remained unchanged since the fee was set in 1996 at $230 for an individual, $460 per year for family coverage. An average civilian plan currently costs approximately $2,700 a year.
NAUS reported that in November the Defense Advisory Committee on Military Compensation issued a proposal to raise enrollment fees over a three-year period for Tricare Prime. This proposal and another to increase the level of deductibles for Tricare Standard aim to counter the overall increasing health care costs DoD faces. The Committee is also discussing the initiation of a Tricare Standard enrollment fees and an increase in pharmacy co-pays for retail pharmacy purchases.
Under the proposal, Tricare Prime for under-65 retirees would increase to $750 / $1,500 for officers and $450 / $900 for enlisted by 2008 from the current fee of $230 (individual) / $460 (family).
The proposal would establish a Tricare Standard enrollment fee of $300 / $600 for officers and $200 / $400 for enlisted by 2008. There is no enrollment fee for Tricare Standard at the present time. The proposal also recommends an increase in the Tricare Standard annual deductible to $300 / $600 for officers and $200 / $400 for enlisted by 2008 from $150 / $300 for all.
Proposed co-payments for the TRICARE Retail pharmacy program would increase to $5 (Tier I), $15 (Tier II) and $22 (Tier III) from $3 (Tier 1), $9 (Tier II) and $22 (Tier III) by 2008.
For retirees 65 and over, the combination of Medicare and TRICARE For Life is pretty much comprehensive. In other words, hard to beat! Medicare is automatically deducted from retirees Soc Security payment - around $80.00 I think - and TRICARE For Life is free.
I think it is MTF specific. You and your family may be safe at BAMC. At least until BAMC picks up hospital services for the closing WHMC hospital.
Wilford Hall may be a different story. I heard the news a year ago during an annual retiree briefing by the WHMC commander. At that time, he was talking only about Wilford Hall and it did apply to those using Tricare Prime prior to age 65. After that age, we're shuffled off to the Medicare.
Maybe the new complex planned to replace WHMC hospital under BRAC will change the story. (Fingers crossed.)
I'm in Tricare Reserve Select which uses most of the Standard numbers. It looks like they are trying to turn Standard in to catostrophic coverage. TRS has monthly premiums that are cheap. I wonder how far they are going to go up?
Thanks for posting the link to your first post on this. It was before I joined FR. All that time Mr. Voice spent in combat, unaccompanied tours,etc,at a time when the military was really looked down on.He had the sure knowledge that when he put in his years serving his country he would have taken the steps to ensure that the military would keep up some end of the bargain. Nope, I'll have to break this to Mr. Voice gradually.
wow, this SUCKS. Hubby won't be too happy either.
What I don't like is they kept the $460 price low for 10 years and they should raise it in a tiered scale so it's not as much of a shock.
You think this crap is going to pass? This is going to be too much of a shock to the family budget.
Good post. True enough.
But . . . :-)
Tricare Prime guarantees reasonable access based upon level of medical care required.
Space availability here is really defined by the number and cost of military and contract physicians available to care for the retiree population. Add to that the increasing cost of prescription drugs. What you then get is this pressure to pass along the cost.
Lower ranking enlisted personnel are the people who particularly grab my sympathy. Unless they have fared well with their civilian careers, those folks, say, E-6 and E-5, may feel the pinch more painfully than the rest of us.
How retirees feel about this situation is usually directly proportional to their beliefs when they chose to make the military a career. For many of us the presumption was life time free medical care. We had at the time we enlisted or accepted commissions good reason for believing the presumption was based upon a promise.
For retirees 65 and over, the combination of Medicare and TRICARE For Life is pretty much comprehensive. In other words, hard to beat! Medicare is automatically deducted from retirees Soc Security payment - around $80.00 I think - and TRICARE For Life is free.
From a fact sheet I believe is still valid:
When beneficiaries age 65 and over become eligible for Medicare Part A, they can use TRICARE For Life (TFL) if they purchase Medicare Part B. These beneficiaries are not eligible for TRICARE Prime but are eligible to use Medicare, network and non-network providers. Under TFL, TRICARE acts as a second payer to Medicare for benefits payable by both Medicare and TRICARE. Beneficiaries can use an authorized Medicare provider and claims will be automatically sent to TRICARE after Medicare pays its portion. There are no enrollment fees for TFL—beneficiaries are only required to pay the Medicare Part B premium. TRICARE is first payer for TRICARE benefits not covered by Medicare, such as pharmacy, which is available only under TRICARE.
Some military treatment facilities will have capacity to offer a primary care affiliation program called TRICARE Plus. Enrolled beneficiaries have priority access to care at military treatment facilities; however, beneficiaries who choose to use TRICARE Extra, TRICARE Standard or TRICARE For Life may also continue to receive care in a military treatment facility on a space-available basis.
The proposed increases are all about passing along costs to people who (in many instances) did not expect to have any cost in the first place. Tricare for Life is a whole new looming disaster, because it will be both about cost and about the politics of Medicare, especially now that the first baby boomers are reaching age sixty.
Anyway, enjoyed your comments. Hope we get to talk more.
This is more of the "Cradle to Grave" health care that we were promised when we joined (May 1964 in my case) to help make up for the sorry pay scales (again $660 for the year of 1965 in my case).
I have been sickened (pun intended) by the way that our Congress has kept it's promise.
In my case, this proved beneficial. I was able to resume care under the same physician who had been my personal doctor for the last 15 years of my post-military career. I was not at all comfortable with the level of care I had been receiving under the TAFB PCM. They seemed to always be overloaded, with little time devoted to each patient. Also, neither of the PCM's I had been assigned to were medical doctors, and in fact, in the two and 1/2 years I was enrolled at TAFB, I never had services provided by an MD.
I agree with your statement that Tricare For Life may well be a looming disaster. Large numbers of retirees receiving benefits without cost to the retiree cannot last forever. At some point, TFL will surely become a fee-for-enrollment "benefit".
One other point I'd like to make is that pharmacy benefits for Tricare members - regardless of program, I believe - are free at military care facilities. But many members are not aware that participating network pharmacy cost to members is very reasonable. I pay a maximum of $9.00 per prescription! I use this benefit at my local pharmacy whenever the prescribed medication is not available at TAFB pharmacy. In one recent case, my wife was given a script which TAFB could not fill, and the local pharmacy, not realizing I was Tricare, filled it at a cost of $30.00 for a seven day supply. When I told them I was Tricare, the fee dropped to $9.00.
bumping for more comments.
what can we do now about this? how do we make our voices heard? i would have never expected this from a republican congress. the rose colored glasses are cracking.
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