Harlingen, Texas, January 9, 2010: Military retirees are very close to losing their hard won Tricare for Life health insurance…and it is their own fault. The sad truth about military retirees is they usually fail to respond when their rights are violated or their futures placed in jeopardy. When viewing voting constituencies, the most dossal and inactive people are found among the retired military members and their dependents.

Any politician engaged in the deceitful practices of Washington D. C. knows one of the easiest targets to attack is the retired military community. Politicians view this group as the least harmful of any who make up the ranks of the voting public. They place those who served in uniform at the top of their least harmful list, thus making them political targets whenever there is a search being conducted to show the public what the political elite call meaningful dollar savings.

There are some strong military retiree advocates who are speaking out on the dangerous situation facing their former comrades-in-arms. One of these is Colonel Wayne Morris, USMC (Ret), who says, “We know that nothing is safe right now when considering the ongoing efforts of the current administration especially in any and all areas aligned with health care! Military retirees will quickly become a ‘soft target’ for those who would take away from one group and give to another. I personally see a marked effort on the part of the current administration to divide us on this issue – to cause those who are NOT military retirees, (even those now on active duty) to eventually play against us and the benefits we have thus far been able to retain.”

In support of this idea, the colonel points out there are some ‘so-called’ veteran support organizations already advising retirees to calm down and not worry about our health benefits. These groups are telling the veterans that Tricare for Life benefits are safe and that retirees have nothing to worry about. The falseness of such statements can be understood when it is realized that under current legislative plans Medicare will be cut by $500 billion and Tricare for Life is linked solidly to Medicare. Doing the math anyone can see that such a devastating cut in services and benefits to Medicare would mean similar cuts in Tricare for Life.

Additional searching into this healthcare legislation will reveal that, as now drafted, new healthcare rules would require our advanced aged military retirees on Medicare and Tricare for Life to pay the fist $525 of medical costs for the beneficiary and identical costs for any dependent. The retiree would then pay 50% of the next $4,725 of medical charges up to a total of $6,301 per year. This is the additional financial load our Congress will place on those who have already given twenty and more years of service to their country. Many of who left their blood and body parts on the fields of battle.

The Washington version of the old Shell Game has already started. This is a confidence trick where three shells and a pea are used in what is claimed to be a gambling game. Actually, as the shells are shifted from position to position, the pea is removed from the table…and the player ends up picking NOTHING. In the 2,000 plus page Obamacare health insurance bill, congressional lackeys tell us time and again that Tricare for Life is protected. But hey keep shifting those shells. The service organizations have already swallowed the snake oil and are echoing administration claims that TFL is safe. They have already bought into the Shell Game. We also know everyone in the Democrat Congress is keeping those shells moving and not letting us see that pea. The end result will be another case of “nothing is too good for those who served in uniform”…and that is what they will get.  NOTHING!

Semper Fidelis

Thomas D. Segel