TRICARE Update

MORE IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON TRICARE

Thanks, Gene! Fm: Larry H.

From: Mike Conner
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 2:58 PM
Subject: TRICARE Update
Importance: High

Guys: I forwarded Gene's message to my friend that writes the Tricare Help column for the Military times papers ie AF,Army and Navy Times and here is his answer to your concerns. Hope this clears up some of them.
Mike

Good morning, Mike:

Thanks for writing. And thanks for the compliment you pay me by coming to Tricare Help for the facts. You honor me with your trust.

I can understand your concerns, but things are not nearly as grim as some people think. I've gotten a number of letters about e-mails received from Bob Clements about this matter. If my memory serves me, Bob has been warning people about coming disasters and, perhaps, the nefarious designs of certain persons or groups, for a number of years. Although I am certain Bob has the best interests of the country at heart, in this case at least, his fears seem to be unwarranted and a result, in large part, from his not knowing, not understanding, how Washington's "innards" work.

My editor, Mr. Chuck Vinch, got a letter to the Editor, Air Force Times, early last week. The writer shared your concerns. Here is Chuck's reply (keep in mind that he has reported the Washington scene for many years). A similar reply will be in my column in all the Times service newspapers this week or next. Chuck says it so much better than I ever hope to do.

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This appears to be one of those snowballing Internet campaigns begun by someone with an overactive imagination, a pre-conceived bias against the incoming administration, and a little too much time on their hands.

There is an entity known as the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan organization (it serves neither Democratic nor Republican masters) with two missions: drawing up cost estimates for legislative initiatives proposed in Congress, and making recommendations for reducing federal spending. Each year, CBO issues a large batch of recommendations for reducing federal spending. They have just issued their first wave of these recommendations, which focus on health care. Among the 115 recommendations are three that deal with Tricare.

I cannot stress strongly enough that these are RECOMMENDATIONS. That is, they are "what if" proposals. No one is actively calling for these changes -- and in fact, the vast majority of the recommendations issued by CBO in these annual reports are NEVER acted upon. And contrary to what you may be reading in the emails flying around cyberspace, the Obama administration has said NOTHING about these issues and has said nothing to indicate that it plans to act on the CBO recommendations. Frankly, given all the other things Obama will have on his plate when he takes office, this issue is so far down the list that it won't even be a blip on his radar screen.

Is it possible that some of the CBO's recommendations could be taken up and adopted at some point in the future? Well, anything is possible. All I can tell you as fact right this moment is that very few, if any, of these annual CBO recommendations ever go anywhere, and at this time, no one in a policymaking position in Congress is talking about eliminating or reducing the Tricare for Life benefit.

The Internet is one of the greatest innovations in the history of humankind, but it has its drawbacks -- and one of them is that it gives people the ability to rapidly and widely disseminate unfounded and inaccurate information. And like a snowball rolling downhill, the more people who read it, the more unnecessary anxiety is created.

We recently published a short news article on the CBO recommendations. In that story, we noted what I have told you above -- that these are recommendations that are rarely acted upon. You can rest assured that if any efforts to change or reduce Tricare benefits do in fact gain traction, we will report on them prominently in our newspapers.

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I believe Chuck's reply will help put things in a more rational perspective for you.

Thank you for the chance to address your concerns about this matter. I trust you will find this information useful. Please come back any time you have questions about Tricare, or if you need further clarification about Tricare matters.

Jim Hamby
Tricare Help
"Since 1992"
Times News Service
6883 Commercial Drive
Springfield, VA 22159

Please address all e-mail to:
tricarehelp@atpco.com