05-13-2011, 04:08 PM
What are your thoughts? There are so many ideas being floated by both parties...changing medicare, raising the age for social security, letting the tax cuts expire for those earning over $250k, cutting oil company subsidies...and on and on. Thoughts?
And specifically, what do you think about this proposal? Are military benefit packages sacrosanct?
WASHINGTON -- A military built for fighting wars is looking more and more like a health care entitlement program.
Costs of the program that provides health coverage to some 10 million active-duty personnel, retirees, reservists and their families have jumped from $19 billion in 2001 to $53 billion in the Pentagon's latest budget request.
Desperate to cut spending in Washington's time of fiscal austerity, President Obama has proposed increasing the fees for working-age retirees in the decades-old health program, known as TRICARE. After years of resisting proposed increases for the military men and women who sacrificed for a nation, budget-conscious lawmakers suddenly are poised to make them pay a bit more for their health care, though not on the president's terms.
The current fees, unchanged in 11 years, are $230 a year for an individual and $460 for a family. That's far less than what civilian federal workers pay for health care, about $5,000 a year, and what most other people in the U.S. pay.
http://www.military.com/news/article/hea...tagon.html
And specifically, what do you think about this proposal? Are military benefit packages sacrosanct?
WASHINGTON -- A military built for fighting wars is looking more and more like a health care entitlement program.
Costs of the program that provides health coverage to some 10 million active-duty personnel, retirees, reservists and their families have jumped from $19 billion in 2001 to $53 billion in the Pentagon's latest budget request.
Desperate to cut spending in Washington's time of fiscal austerity, President Obama has proposed increasing the fees for working-age retirees in the decades-old health program, known as TRICARE. After years of resisting proposed increases for the military men and women who sacrificed for a nation, budget-conscious lawmakers suddenly are poised to make them pay a bit more for their health care, though not on the president's terms.
The current fees, unchanged in 11 years, are $230 a year for an individual and $460 for a family. That's far less than what civilian federal workers pay for health care, about $5,000 a year, and what most other people in the U.S. pay.
http://www.military.com/news/article/hea...tagon.html
Commando Cunt Queen