Another slap to retirees

[Eagle5US]

http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,82291,00.html

Rarely do I post articles-but damn this one really bothers me. Why? Because I am part of the system with which this is involved.

Bottom line-Retiree medical benefits are going the way of the dodo

Retiree medical benefits are slim at best. Shoot-even if you are active duty you have a fit trying to get a timely appointment, retirees are bottom of the barrel, and their family members are last on the list. Many of these folks were told for years about their free medical and dental for life-as was I when I first joined in the early 80's. They (and I) accepted the initial change over to TRI-SCARE and the subsequent charge for them to have the priviledge to be placed last on any and every availability list for care.
The cost of the coverage was commensurate with the availability of care-it was cheap...and you get what you pay for. Add to that, less than 23% of civilian healthcare providers or establishments nationwide accept Tri-Care for anysource of coverage. The reason? Because Tri-Care reimbursement for community established procedure guidelines is less than 10% of what is recognized to be the standard.
For example..the collective bill for one of my shoulder surgeries, done at a civilian hospital under TriCare contract while at 10th MTN, was 18K +/-. TriCare's TOTAL reimbursement to Carthage hospital was just under $400.
The notion to more than triple the cost of substandard health coverage, and program annual increases to mirror cost of living increases, just chaps my skin. The article sites that TriCare premiums have not been raised in more than a decade. Yet it fails to mention that TriCare acceptance by civilian establishments has declined by more than 70%. What justification do they have to raise a premium when their product is cnsidered substandard by the established professional community?
In a time of war, when we are going to be generating veterans who will be both physically disabled and in many cases unable to maintain a significant substantial income, I think this proposed change is a terrible example of things to come. Add to that a VA system that is bankrupt, broken, and generally staffed with providers who are underpaid (but anable to get jobs elsewhere), and the medical outlook is bleek for this nations retirees and disabled warfighters.
OK...Rant off:

Eagle