"The Luckiest People Alive"
by:
Robert V Clements, Brig Gen USAF ret

This is a message, sent by e-mail from B Gen Bob Clements, to the military retiree grass roots community.

The bill that President Clinton signed into law October 30th was a landmark instrument.

Through it's passage an extremely large segment of military retirees who had been wronged by the government of the United States through broken promises will be remedied.

Of added significance is , this bill affects all military retirees of Medicare age now and into the future ...not just a small segment of the 1.4 million population. This is a huge additive to the recruitment and retention of military personnel... vital to the security and defense of this great democracy.

This will be the first time that portions of military healthcare will become an entitlement under mandatory spending guaranteed by law rather that at the changing whims of a future politically motivated Secretary of Defense, which for all practical purposes means the sitting administration at any given time.

This Bill says HAND's OFF

The pharmacy benefits alone, when they become activated in April 2001, will relieve the suffering of thousands of military retirees who in some cases are having to make a choice between food on their table or life saving drugs. This is comparable to the indignities being suffered by some of our younger active duty troops who are on food stamps. The older people have no way of adding to their fixed income to alleviate the dilemma because of physical infirmities and theirs, is a life threatening situation. This has caused me many a sleepless nights thinking of their predicaments and imagining the horrors they must be suffering

In October 2001 the medical portion will start allowing Medicare eligible military retirees to use Medicare as first payor and Tricare as second payor, no co pays and no deductibles. That means that Tricare will be a 100% medigap insurance. There is NO other segment of American society or taxpayer that has such a benefit guaranteed by their government under law. This is an unprecedented first that has been given to his segment of American society by their Congress. It is a giant step taken by this nation to say to our younger citizens and older alike, "Yes, we do keep our promises"

Is this a full restoration of the broken promises?

No, it is not.

We were promised for ourselves and our eligible dependents healthcare for life in a military treatment facility on a space available basis.

At the time those promises were made military treatment facilities were in abundance and quite frankly, I feel everyone was of the opinion they would be here forever.

Well, after the fall of the Soviet Union, military medicine has been in a decline to treat numbers, and, like it or not, the military treatment facilities have also waned and we are still in danger of having more of them downgraded and closed.

There are those who argue we should reopen those facilities because of the promises made. It is a good argument but one that has little chance if any of ever succeeding with the Veteran's Administration facilities hanging in the background and the taxpayer clamoring for joint usage. Quite frankly, and I am sure this will help to swell my e-mail box considerably, I would rather, as a professional, have the Tricare for Life benefits any day of the week than to have the VA facility as my prime source of care. My experience with the VA is that it needs a hell of a lot of fixing and swings back and forth from political intervention which is exactly what we have avoided with Tricare for Life.

What needs to be done to fully restore the promise in my opinion?

Remove the requirement for Medicare Part B.

Is it workable?

Yes, in my opinion it is. This is the last segment of the broken promise per se that must be removed as far as medical care is concerned. It must be removed for all military retirees both now and in the future.

There are many military retirees who, when they reached age 65, did not take out Medicare Part B..Why? Because of the promises made, they did not ever think they would need it. These people must be grand fathered into the system to truly retire the broken promise made by their country and accepted by them on good faith. The word of the United States government trough it's Congress.

Colonel Bud Day's lawsuit is specific in remedy of this situation and his suit even goes further in requiring the United Sates Government return those monies that have already been paid by retirees into Medicare Part B. I hope with all my heart such a decision is returned by the appellate court and implemented as recourse.

So, where do we stand?

I must say this. I pinch myself every day to see if I am still alive and if this is all for real.

After starting with nothing over two years ago, I must recall the NDAA bill that went into conference for resolvement with a 440 million dollar bill approved by the House and a 990 million dollar bill approved by the Senate and we come out of conference with a 60 BILLION dollar mandatory spending bill with the Treasury of the United States assuming an obligated debt of over 200 BILLION dollars amortized over a period of 70 years. In addition we overrode a budget point of order on a vote of 90-2. If there was ever a blue ribbon bill to come out of the Congress in defiance of all odds, this has to be it. We are the luckiest people alive...AND the most deserving.

As Senator Gramm said,(paraphrased) "you have a bill that is going to be paid for by poor young working Americans who don't vote to give to rich older Americans who do vote".... Younger people could take a lesson here. VOTE

Were we lucky?...absolutely undeniably so..Unbelievably lucky

Who did it....ALL OF US...LET ME REPEAT THAT ALL OF US!

Now, Let me personally thank ALL OF YOU for a tremendous job. It was without a doubt and still is, one of the largest and most successful grass roots efforts that has ever been mounted. All the Congressional offices will tell you that, but, they will also tell you that is was a joint effort. Anyone who doesn't believe that has illusions of grandeur and inflated posture of self importance.

My dad once told me, "Son, when you really get to thinking you are important and irreplacable, stick your finger in a cup of coffee, pull it out and see what a big hole you leave. " There is a lesson that could be learned here. My Dad was right, as always

Are we through...NO WAY

OFF WITH MEDICARE PART B AND GRANDFATHER THOSE OFFENDED ON with FEHBP as an OPTION for all military retirees
FIX SUBVENTION
FIX CONCURRENT RECEIPT

VERY IMPORTANT THAT THE MILITARY MEDICAL SERVICES BE ALLOWED TO FORGE A PARTNERSHIP WITH MEDICARE and compete for the Medicare eligible retired patient and be directly reimbursed . This is extremely vital to the survivalof the MTFS!

From the bottom of my heart, and especially for my little 80 year old widow who for the first time in years is going to have some security and peace in her life and a good nights sleep,

THANK YOU...See you in the 107th...Happy Holidays!!!!!

Robert V Clements
Brig Gen USAF ret

Click here to see B Gen Bob's web site at: http://home.surewest.net/p38bob/

The web page name - "The Retired Military Advocate" - copyrighted 17 Sept. 1997
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