House Votes To Exempt TRICARE From Health Reform Bill

A little good news for military retirees and Active duty members but we still have to sweat out our medicare benefits.............



GovExec.com
March 21, 2010

House Votes To Exempt TRICARE From Health Reform Bill

By Katherine McIntire Peters

House lawmakers over the weekend voted to protect TRICARE and Defense non-appropriated fund health care beneficiaries from unintended consequences of national health reform.

The exemption (H.R. 4887) applies to the health care coverage provided by the Defense Department to military service members, retirees and their families. It clarifies the tax code to stipulate that coverage provided by Defense is treated as minimal essential coverage, ensuring that service members and their families will not need to purchase additional coverage to meet new health insurance requirements.

The legislation was introduced late Friday by Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. The full House approved it by a vote of 403-0 on Saturday afternoon.

Skelton opposed the health reform bill and planned to vote against it Sunday. In a floor speech Saturday, he acknowledged that the bill under consideration in Congress was unlikely to have any negative effect on military personnel or their dependents.

"However, to reassure our military service members and their families and make it perfectly clear that they will not be negatively affected by this legislation, my bill, H.R. 4887, explicitly states in law that these health plans meet the minimum requirements for individual health insurance."

Navy Pride said:

A little good news for military retirees and Active duty members but we still have to sweat out our medicare benefits.............



GovExec.com
March 21, 2010

House Votes To Exempt TRICARE From Health Reform Bill

By Katherine McIntire Peters

House lawmakers over the weekend voted to protect TRICARE and Defense non-appropriated fund health care beneficiaries from unintended consequences of national health reform.

The exemption (H.R. 4887) applies to the health care coverage provided by the Defense Department to military service members, retirees and their families. It clarifies the tax code to stipulate that coverage provided by Defense is treated as minimal essential coverage, ensuring that service members and their families will not need to purchase additional coverage to meet new health insurance requirements.

The legislation was introduced late Friday by Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. The full House approved it by a vote of 403-0 on Saturday afternoon.

Skelton opposed the health reform bill and planned to vote against it Sunday. In a floor speech Saturday, he acknowledged that the bill under consideration in Congress was unlikely to have any negative effect on military personnel or their dependents.

"However, to reassure our military service members and their families and make it perfectly clear that they will not be negatively affected by this legislation, my bill, H.R. 4887, explicitly states in law that these health plans meet the minimum requirements for individual health insurance."

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Those damn socialists....!!!

I guess your cries about the sky falling were just that....

disneydude said:

Those damn socialists....!!!

I guess your cries about the sky falling were just that....

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Not quite.......Tricare is 20% of our coverage....if they can't see us in the Naval Hospital they farm us out to Medicare which is taking a 500 billion dollar cut thank to Obama Social Care...........

Last year I was farmed out twice......The doctors are droping medicare and medicad like flies.........

But weren't you saying that TRICARE was going to disappear if the Bill passed?

disneydude said:

But weren't you saying that TRICARE was going to disappear if the Bill passed?

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It would of if Skelton had not come through.........He one of the few democrats that cares about the military......I will be curious to see how the senate votes on this....With democrats like Kerry and Durbin at sure won't be 100%........

Navy Pride said:

It would of if Skelton had not come through.........He one of the few democrats that cares about the military......I will be curious to see how the senate votes on this....With democrats like Kerry and Durbin at sure won't be 100%........

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Please...Navy....Stop being dramatic. It was a 435-0 vote. This was not something that was ever in question.

disneydude said:

Please...Navy....Stop being dramatic. It was a 435-0 vote. This was not something that was ever in question.

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That would be 403-0, but what 32 votes? I am talking about the senate..........

Navy Pride said:

Not quite.......Tricare is 20% of our coverage....if they can't see us in the Naval Hospital they farm us out to Medicare which is taking a 500 billion dollar cut thank to Obama Social Care...........

Last year I was farmed out twice......The doctors are droping medicare and medicad like flies.........

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We use TriCARE as a teriary coverage for my wife and as secondary for myself. Our small business medical insurance is our primary carrier. Lucky my wife has Medicare coverage since her malady is covered as a disability by medicare. I am still trying to get more details as to what these "medicare cuts" are suppposed to be in. I am not sure where we can get more savings out of medicare since the Fee Schedukes for Medicare are already lower than low and are approaching the medicaid level. I do have access to Fee Schedules from various companies since I do audits for them but I cannot dilvilge any facts or even make a public reference to the fees due to privacy and conflict of interest exposure. I will have to use public sorces for my data.

I did not see this bill as a threat to TriCARE but I was and am vigilent !!

BE PREPARED !!!

BTW since I am in the insurance field I have pretty much stayed out of the debate even on this forum ---- I have to in the event anyone ever pnetrated my pseudinym - one never knows !!!!

Navy Pride said:

That would be 403-0, but what 32 votes? I am talking about the senate..........

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435...403...whatever...it was unanimous

The Senate is going to pass this as well. It was never in question. It was just some people being overly dramatic.

That's GREAT news. I hope it eases everyone's mind a bit.

Our veterans and retired military deserve the best health care our government can provide them.

Captain America said:

That's GREAT news. I hope it eases everyone's mind a bit.

Our veterans and retired military deserve the best health care our government can provide them.

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believe me we do not get "the best". I had to use TriCARE (known as CAMPUS back then ) as my primary coverage back when I was laid off in the 90's and many Docs sot of "shunned " us. We could not use the nearest military hospital since it is 77 miles away from us.

funny thing is that we get a lot of talk from Republicans but we tend to get the increase in services from the Democrats - funny isn't it when the Republican talk a lot about "supporting the troops". sure !!!

The Democrats must like hese Government Socialist Insurance Plans such as TriCare and Medicare I guess !!!

disneydude said:

Those damn socialists....!!!

I guess your cries about the sky falling were just that....

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those damn Socialists are squandering our Grandkid's money on those military and retired mlitary members who since the 70's are volunteers !!!

"They volunteered for God's sakes WE DO NOT OWE THEM "NOTHIN" !!!!!!"

OK!! I am done with my Tea PARTY speech now back to our scheduled program !!!!!

F107HyperSabr said:

believe me we do not get "the best". I had to use TriCARE (known as CAMPUS back then ) as my primary coverage back when I was laid off in the 90's and many Docs sot of "shunned " us. We could not use the nearest military hospital since it is 77 miles away from us.

funny thing is that we get a lot of talk from Republicans but we tend to get the increase in services from the Democrats - funny isn't it when the Republican talk a lot about "supporting the troops". sure !!!

The Democrats must like hese Government Socialist Insurance Plans such as TriCare and Medicare I guess !!!

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The truth is...the Republicans "support" for troops is waving a flag. Democrats support for the troops is ensuring that they are taken care of both on the battlefield and at home.

F107HyperSabr said:

We use TriCARE as a teriary coverage for my wife and as secondary for myself. Our small business medical insurance is our primary carrier. Lucky my wife has Medicare coverage since her malady is covered as a disability by medicare. I am still trying to get more details as to what these "medicare cuts" are suppposed to be in. I am not sure where we can get more savings out of medicare since the Fee Schedukes for Medicare are already lower than low and are approaching the medicaid level. I do have access to Fee Schedules from various companies since I do audits for them but I cannot dilvilge any facts or even make a public reference to the fees due to privacy and conflict of interest exposure. I will have to use public sorces for my data.

I did not see this bill as a threat to TriCARE but I was and am vigilent !!

BE PREPARED !!!

BTW since I am in the insurance field I have pretty much stayed out of the debate even on this forum ---- I have to in the event anyone ever pnetrated my pseudinym - one never knows !!!!

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Scuttlebutt has it they are going to pour all these uninsured into medical/Medicare and doctors are dropping that program like flies because of the cuts...I just hope the Navy Hospital will stop farming out retirees to Medicare..........I was farmed out twice last year, once for a colonoscopy and once for a malignant mole........

Oh for the good old days when we were promised free medical for life if we made the military a career....

Navy Pride said:

A little good news for military retirees and Active duty members but we still have to sweat out our medicare benefits.............



GovExec.com
March 21, 2010

House Votes To Exempt TRICARE From Health Reform Bill

By Katherine McIntire Peters

House lawmakers over the weekend voted to protect TRICARE and Defense non-appropriated fund health care beneficiaries from unintended consequences of national health reform.

The exemption (H.R. 4887) applies to the health care coverage provided by the Defense Department to military service members, retirees and their families. It clarifies the tax code to stipulate that coverage provided by Defense is treated as minimal essential coverage, ensuring that service members and their families will not need to purchase additional coverage to meet new health insurance requirements.

The legislation was introduced late Friday by Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. The full House approved it by a vote of 403-0 on Saturday afternoon.

Skelton opposed the health reform bill and planned to vote against it Sunday. In a floor speech Saturday, he acknowledged that the bill under consideration in Congress was unlikely to have any negative effect on military personnel or their dependents.

"However, to reassure our military service members and their families and make it perfectly clear that they will not be negatively affected by this legislation, my bill, H.R. 4887, explicitly states in law that these health plans meet the minimum requirements for individual health insurance."

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Wow that's totally un****ing fair.

Pandering at it's finest.

Navy Pride said:

A little good news for military retirees and Active duty members but we still have to sweat out our medicare benefits.............

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Tricare isnt going to be touched. For now. But anyoen that has been listening to obama, Pelosi, and any of the dem leaders knows their untent. they will force single pay universal healthcare. Its going to happen. And when that does, tricare will go away, as will Medicare and Medicaid. Its the only way to make universal healthcare even on paper reasonable. They will still keep open flight medicine and maybe even primary care for active duty military. But for everyone else? Uh uh...

And think about it...if they DO pass universal health care as is their stated objective, would you WANT tricare? Of course not. Your taxes will go up to pay for the universal health care. Why on earth would you want to pay twice?

Just trying to be realistic.

Harry Guerrilla said:

Wow that's totally un****ing fair.

Pandering at it's finest.

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Explain that please.........

Navy Pride said:

Explain that please.........

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Ex-military and current military alike should have to follow the same rules as the rest of us.

disneydude said:

The truth is...the Republicans "support" for troops is waving a flag. Democrats support for the troops is ensuring that they are taken care of both on the battlefield and at home.

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Yeah like Kerry Murtha and Durbin did:

Durbin: Our troops in Gitmo are like the Russian Gulag

Kerry: Our troops are like terrorist breaking into homes in the middle of the night

Murtha: Our marines are murderes;;; With love like that by your leaders I don't need any hate......-:rofl

Navy Pride said:

Yeah like Kerry Murtha and Durbin did:

Durbin: Our troops in Gitmo are like the Russian Gulag

Kerry: Our troops are like terrorist breaking into homes in the middle of the night

Murtha: Our marines are murderes;;; With love like that by your leaders I don't need any hate......-:rofl

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I'm talking generally. The Republicans talk a good game, but when the actually legislation comes forward, it is the Democrats that are usually the ones that are providing the troops actual support (not just waving a flag)

F107HyperSabr said:

believe me we do not get "the best". I had to use TriCARE (known as CAMPUS back then ) as my primary coverage back when I was laid off in the 90's and many Docs sot of "shunned " us. We could not use the nearest military hospital since it is 77 miles away from us.

funny thing is that we get a lot of talk from Republicans but we tend to get the increase in services from the Democrats - funny isn't it when the Republican talk a lot about "supporting the troops". sure !!!

The Democrats must like hese Government Socialist Insurance Plans such as TriCare and Medicare I guess !!!

Click to expand...

Champus? I'm sorry to hear our government has not provided you with the best of the best. No doubt our social programs could use some improvements. Thank you for your service, by the way.

Some people's definition of "supporting our troops" means giving them something important to do, like go fight in a war. It also means providing them with the best we have to offer in defensive technology. Thus, feeding the defense industry, thus bolstering the economy (as well as making politicians rich,) thus creating the need for armed conflict, thus allowing or even creating the armed conflict, to then send our young men and women out to fight it. Rinse and repeat.

I guess that's ONE way to support our troops. :roll:

Others have a different perspective. They feel supporting our troops means taking every measure to keep them alive and, if at all possible, keeping out of harms way to begin with and then take care of them after their service. The latter, everyone should agree on.

Is it me or has anyone noticed a relative calm about the new stuff out of Washington since the new opinion polls are starting to relect the populous majority now approves of the health care reform?

When the numbers were tilting against it, we couldn't hardly turn anywhere with running across a frothing, angry person shouting "Americans Don't Want It!"

Well, now they do.

Tomorrow, may be a different story. Who knows?

Let's talk about polls and selective beliefs, regardless.

With over 70% of the US population thinking that the Iraqi war was a collossal mistake, would those same angry Becksters agree with the masses, that the Iraqi was an error? As they expected us to do, when the polls were leaning against health care reform? I think not. So is it any surprise the other side didn't give much weight to the position that 50+% of the masses were against "Obamacare" so it must be a bad thing?

How's that go? "He who laughs last......" But I digress.

Poll's only mean anything when they validate one's position. When they don't, and they go against one's beliefs, as usual, the whole marching band is out of step but Johnny.

I see everybody doing it. No one has the moral highground on selective beliefs. Perception is reality.

disneydude said:

I'm talking generally. The Republicans talk a good game, but when the actually legislation comes forward, it is the Democrats that are usually the ones that are providing the troops actual support (not just waving a flag)

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That is the leaders of your party saying those things about our troops in harms way...You just can't shrug that off........

Harry Guerrilla said:

Ex-military and current military alike should have to follow the same rules as the rest of us.

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Cowards like you should be drafted and put in the front lines.........That will cause be a couple of penalty points but so be it asshole.......

disneydude said:

435...403...whatever...it was unanimous

The Senate is going to pass this as well. It was never in question. It was just some people being overly dramatic.

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I don't know where you get that fuzzy math FF but for your info 435-0 is unanimous......

disneydude said:

But weren't you saying that TRICARE was going to disappear if the Bill passed?

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without this fix it would have. tricare reimbursement rates are often lower than medicares'.