President Obama proposed a $200 annual fee for TRICARE-for-Life
beneficiaries beginning Oct. 1, 2012, as part of the President's Plan for
Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction.

. The fees are expected to save $6.7 billion over 10 years for the
military health system budget. The plan also includes savings of $15.1
billion in mandatory funds and $5.5 billion in discretionary funds over 10
years by restructuring co-payments for TRICARE pharmacy benefits.

To bring the TRICARE plan more in line with private and other federal plans,
the President's proposed plan would eliminate co-pays for generic mail-order
drugs, while shifting retail co-pays from a dollar amount to percentage
co-pay. The change would apply to military families and retirees, but not
active duty service members.

The plan also would create a commission to "modernize" military benefits
through a process based on that of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure
Commission. Under the proposal, the Defense Department would make a proposal
to the commission, which can alter the proposal before sending it to the
President. The President may not alter the proposals, but would decide
whether or not to send it to Congress. The Congress would have to approve or
disapprove without modifications.

Many veterans believe that once the door opens and congress approves this
annual fee for TFL it will be difficult to close this door, letting congress
to continue to increase the annual fees for TFL beneficiaries as a matter
for veterans to share increases in health care cost. The other issue is the
promise the military recruiters made to veterans that they and their
families would continue to receive health care once they retired from the
military Service.

Veterans hold a great number of presidential and congressional votes to
demand the health care benefits that were promised to them. It is essential
important that veterans and their supporters go to
http://capwiz.com/fra/issues/alert/?alertid=53749611
<http://capwiz.com/fra/issues/alert/?alertid=53749611&queueid=%5bcapwiz:queu
e_id> &queueid=[capwiz:queue_id] and let your demands.

Abel Quinones Sends









[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]