This alert was received from the Air Force Sergeants Association. It might interest some of you ….
“Death by a thousand cuts” and “piling on military beneficiaries” that’s the approach national leaders seem to have adopted in recent years in reference to military quality-of-life benefit reductions. Military healthcare is no exception. Service members went from documented promises of free, lifetime healthcare, to CHAMPUS, to a switch to TRICARE to reduce healthcare spending, to a pledge by DoD to eventually provide TRICARE Prime coverage nationwide, to the abandonment of that promise, to instituting annual increases in the cost of care for military family members, retirees, their family members, and survivors. And now, in support of Administration proposals, the Senate has called for TRICARE Pharmacy co-pay increases for the third time in four years along with nine years of further programmed increases. We believe these callous actions have already and will continue to harm morale and the future of the All-Volunteer Force.
Because national leaders have repeatedly tried to equate military healthcare with civilian healthcare, Congress has been reeled in to the claim that military beneficiaries are getting too good of a deal for their healthcare.
We believe this is an “apples-to-oranges fallacy.” We contend that the unique package of military retirement benefits – of which a key component is a superior healthcare benefit – is the primary offset provided to uniformed service members for enduring a career of unique and extraordinary sacrifices that few Americans are willing to accept for one year, let alone 20 or 30. It is an unusual and essential compensation package a grateful nation provides to the small fraction of the population who agree to subordinate their personal and family lives to protecting our national interests for so many years. We believe that, for all practical purposes, those who wear the uniform of their country are enrolled in a 20- to 30-year pre-payment plan that must be completed to earn lifetime health coverage. Once that pre-payment is already rendered, the government cannot simply ignore it and focus only on post-service cash payments – as if the past service, sacrifice, and commitments had no value.
Action Request. It is time for us to send a strong message to Congress that “Enough is Enough.” In recent times, military members, their families, retirees, and survivors have, in effect, received one “pay cut” after another as their benefit package has shrunk or they have been made to pay more. We urge you to immediately communicate with your elected officials and urge them to reject the Senate’s TRICARE prescription co-payment increases.