Means Testing . . .

We are over 65 years of age so we are now under Medicare.  The premium is deducted from our Social Security income.   It has not as yet been impacted by Obamacare but we know it is coming as they have advertised almost a 100% increase in premium next year (probably to cover the money the Obamacare act stole from the Medicare accounts).

But we have secondary coverage earned from my military years, it is TRICARE for Life.  Congress and passed administrations cover retire military personnel's medical care.  If you are below 65 years of age it is a basic 80/20 medical insurance plan.  Some large insurance company administers the program by bid.  So we get the lowest bidder and all the accompanying low bidder shenanigans that go with it.

When you reach age 65 TRICARE becomes the secondary coverage and all Medicare bills are automatically passed on to TRICARE for coverage.  So far so good.  Now comes the "but."  The but is that Department of Defense (DoD) wants to begin charging a small amount and it is scaled my means testing.  That is to say, higher grade personnel pay more that lower grade personnel.  Sounds good but if you do 20 or more years of service the lowest grade is going to be Technical Sargent in the USAF or grade E-6.  There may be a few E-5s but in general the vast majority will be well above E-6. 

We already have deductibles, life time limits, etc. like most insurance plans.  They are proposing an annual fee for coverage.  Of course, there is no refusal, as they will deduct the fees from your retirement pay directly.  They gotcha coming and going.

This is also true of officers.   A Second Lieutenant is an O-1, a First Lieutenant is an O-2 and so on.  There are a few Captains, O-3 that retire but the vast majority or either Majors or Lieutenant Colonels and up.  There are very few four star generals who are at the top, their grade is O-10.

What means is that the DoD is raising the rates as fast as they can.  Now, Federal retirees do not get means tested nor do regular citizens get means tested regarding their insurance though that is probably coming with the likes of Obamacare.  So stand by for ram, when you get older, ya gonna pay more.  And as Obamacare matures, in a year or two, so with average Joe public.  And the Democrats will bask in the light of "we gave it to you."

We had a pretty good deal on prescriptions.  Regular generic drugs were $3.00 for a 90 day supply.  Non-generic drugs that were on the approved Formulary were $9.00 for a 90 day supply.  That has changed.  Generic drugs are free but non-generic drugs cost $25.00 or more for a 90 day supply.  Others at the base rate of $9.00 for 90 day supply all based on Formulary drugs and their costs.  Some cancer drugs can cost hundreds of dollars now on our TRICARE system.

This is going to be next applied to the Veterans Administration drug program.  It is or was similar to the TRICARE drug prescription system but may also change.  It will then be applied to the general public via Obamacare.

H. Ross Perot once called NAFTA a "money sucking program."  He ain't seen nothing yet.  Obamacare is going to far out strip NAFTA many times over in sucking money out of your pockets.   Are you feeling good about paying for those losers that do not pay anything?

DoD was hoping we retirees would get shoved under Obamacare blanket but Congress quickly exempted the military from Obamacare.   So DoD is still stuck with funding DoD military retirees health care.   Albeit, those over 65 are not quite as costly as those below 65 since DoD is only picking up what Medicare will not pay or 20% of the allowed amount vice 80% for those under 65 years of age.

Pretty soon there will be no doctors that will accept Medicare patients.  We are lucky, our private physician started with us when I worked for Lockheed and has continued to take care us.  He is now part of a Health care system, an HMO if you will, that accepts Medicare.  That systems has already tried to double bill us but backed out when TRICARE kicked in.

We are in fair position, the general public is not.  Obamacare is a monster that will continue to grow unless curtailed.  Self destruction would be a good thing and put us back on track.