FlyBoyd

CBO: Bar younger retirees from Tricare Prime, save $90 billion | Air Force Times | airforcetimes.com

"Pushing working-age military retirees out of Tricare Prime could save the Pentagon nearly $90 billion over the next 10 years, a measure that would generate the most savings of the various options recently considered by the Congressional Budget Office to trim the defense health budget."

Here we go again...

hawgdriver

Ahhh, just one more reason to leave the military with my middle finger in the air.

Albief15

Take some office pens and post it notes with you on the way out. And once my papers were in I'll be damned if I did another another 9mm, social actions, or EEOC briefing... Rebuilding that Stan/eval shop or preparing for an ORI? Yeah....I will get RIGHT on that..... When was my kids softball game again?

Good luck guys. I feel for all of you. Never felt better about bailing at 14 years...

hindsight2020

I can see a middle ground option where sub-62 retirees can buy into a Tricare Reserve Select equivalent coverage (200/mo for family, 80/20 3k cap etc etc), but outright making them ineligible for Tricare? Holy hell man, Congress has jumped the shark. If you can't even qualify for affordable decent medical insurance via military service in mil-retirement anymore, then to me that's further reason to push for single payer system, honestly.

I think the real inflection point in the decision to invest in a military career going forward is going to be when they dilute the pension down to Reserve-retirement equivalent (i.e. payable at 60). At that point, it's over for Active Duty, especially on the enlisted side where salaries are less competitive. The opportunity cost of starting civilian career-type employment in your 40s without the buffer of an immediate annuity is simply a stupid economic choice to make, and few will make that choice if they touch the payout age. Same goes for the payout percentage. If you dilute the percentage any lower, it's not worth it to stay in uniform versus going across the street to the post office. 50% of base pay is already less than 50% total compensation effectively, as it doesn't account for close to 25% in tax free allowances that make up the military full-time compensation. Compared to 2.5% CSRS pensions, the Reserve-style pension is even more of a joke for an alternative. There's just no incentive in screwing so many aspects of your adult life and your families for a Reserve-style pension under the yoke of 20 years of Active Duty strife. In the Reserves, coming and going as you please and flying whenever and however it pleases you? Sure. But Active duty slavery? No way in hell they get credible takers long term. Hello hollow force.

This is all to do about nothing. You think that double E-5 household has any chance in hell of making to infirmity with 2MM for a defined contribution balance courtesy of that almighty at-will 401k-only (no match) private employment? Ha. Tough chance. All exits point to waves of people relying primarily on Social Security. So the whole cut is beyond ironic. All we're doing collectively is schadenfreude. Sinking all boats. If you have a B-fund these days, count yourself lucky. There's nobody holding on to promises anymore. This is going to break our assumptions of what living in America entailed. Rome burned for this.

Tweetdrvr

You speak with great wisdom once again.

Were you alive when Fonzie jumped the shark on Happy Days?

Ftrooppilot

The most popular retiree action, if Tricare is eliminated, will be the VA hearing claim. You don't even have to have hearing loss; it's the constant ringing in you ears (tinnitus) caused by 20+ years of working in loud noise environments (helicopters, airplanes, mortars, firing range, motor pools, flight lines, etc., etc. ) It is nearly impossible to disapproved the claim.

If granted 10% disability for tinnitus you are in the VA healthcare system for all of your medical needs.

http://www.ata.org/sites/ata.org/fil...l_VA_Claim.pdf

WARich

and the VA system is really awesome......insert sarcasm.... Realize the military is on the chopping block. I'm just amazed at what America is doing to herself.

chignutsak

And your family?

HTBH

Saw this on the forums and thought I'd add to the discussion. I'm retiring military so I have my own hopes and desires that Tricare sticks around. But I'm less than optimistic. I'm not advocating what I'm about to type, just passing the info. Take this for what it is worth, but I had a nice long discussion with a guy I met at a dinner party a few weeks ago who actually helped write the Affordable Care Act. Nice enough guy who was both a doctor and a lawyer. He was happy to discuss the good and bad of the ACA and why it "is what it is" as he put it. It was very interesting to talk to him and see how he viewed things. I didn't tell him I was military until quite a ways into the conversation.

When I brought the topic of Tricare up he rolled his eyes. I asked what his thoughts on that were and he said it would be great to rid of it because of how much it cost. I asked what he thought the answer was and he basically said, "you can all use the Affordable Care Act and get some sort of tax break based on your military service". I bluntly asked, "how will you make that happen?" He very matter of fact said the best option was to keep raising Tricare premiums until they came close to the premiums for the ACA, at which point there'd be no reason to have Tricare around and we would all just use the ACA. I realized at some point during the discussion that to him that military service and the guarantee of healthcare for military service meant nothing. It was all a total numbers game based on dollars and how to save (or make...) the most money. People were just numbers and whether they served or not was irrelevant and whether they got their health care through Tricare or the ACA was irrelevant. I asked him how long he thought it would take to make that happen. He said about 5-10 years. So mark your calendars.

ghilis101

If anyone thinks Tricare, like the military pension, is going to be around forever, well that's highly optimistic.

Considering 99 percent of the US has done away with pensions in favor of boosting executive pay and dividends to shareholders, how can the military not follow suit? I fully expect to see the pension system dissolved and instead it will be all TSP/TSP Match. Healthcare will lag behind, it will still probably be fully covered until youre out or in the reserves, at which point, I do agree TRS premiums will go up.

What did America do to herself? She already did it, basically like 20-30 years ago. The military is just the last man standing.