Renewed Fear Mongering about Veterans’ Health Benefits

Already back in the winter of 2008, even before Barack Obama had taken the oath of office, cyberspace was rife with rumors and innuendoes about how the new president would cut off funds for TRICARE For Life; how he would “[cut] it out of the budget as a means to provide funding for those things he promised during the campaign.” (TRICARE for Life is an excellent and essential secondary health insurance program supplementing Medicare for military retirees and their families.)

The internet was flooded with a viral e-mail campaign trashing Obama for allegedly planning to cut funds in the budget for health care for the military, when he assumed office.

The genesis for this campaign was a CBO report, dated December 2008, while Bush was still president, which included possible ways—“options”—to reduce the costs of TRICARE for Life, among many other budget issues.

The smear campaign got so vicious and ridiculous that several reputable military and veterans organizations had to step in and debunk the claims, including the Reserve Officers Association (ROA) and the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA).

ROA:

The report, on Budget Options, Volume 1: Health Care lists 115 options for reducing federal spending on health care, altering federal healthcare programs, and making substantive changes to the nation’s health insurance system. But these are not formal recommendations. The suggestion for TRICARE for Life is only Option 96 on the list. None are formal recommendations.

MOAA:

First things first: It’s important to understand that this book of options is nothing new. CBO puts out similar lists of options at the start of every Congress, and previous option books have included these or similar proposals. Some of the cuts were, in fact, put in the Bush administration’s annual budgets, but they were rebuffed by Congress every year.

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We’ve seen no indication at this point that the new Administration will share the perspective of the last one that more costs ought to be shifted to DoD and VA beneficiaries.

As it turned out, there have been no cuts in health care benefits for the military or its veterans under the Obama administration. As a matter of fact, under the leadership of Secretary Gates and of General Shinseki at Veterans Affairs, every aspect of military and veterans’ treatment, benefits and services has improved.

Why am I bringing this up?

For two reasons.

First, many of the same people who today assault the CBO’s data on HCR as “lies,” “junk,” “partisan,” etc., had absolutely no qualms about proclaiming preliminary “options” in a long list of other proposals as the “Gospel” in order to besmear a new president even before he was inaugurated.

Second, as the Health Care Reform legislation was debated, and now that it has become law, we again see similar tactics used to frighten retired military and veterans into believing that their hard earned health benefits are at risk because of the new legislation.

So much, that the White House and Department of Veterans Affairs had to issue press releases reassuring veterans that the new health care bill will not affect their health care systems.

So much that the Chairmen of five house committees, including Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Bob Filner and Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton, issued a joint letter reaffirming that the health reform legislation as written would protect those receiving care through all TRICARE and Department of Veterans Affairs programs.

(Skelton is including a provision in the FY2011 Defense Authorization Bill to explicitly state that TRICARE “meets all requirements for individual health insurance.”)

So much that some military and veterans organizations have been “inundated” with phone calls and e-mails of concerned military and VA beneficiaries.

MOAA has posted an extensive list of questions and answers on TRICARE and VA impacts, if any, by National Health Reform.

The very first question:

• I heard the new legislation will roll TRICARE into a massive government health care program. Is this true?

• Here is MOAA’s answer: “Definitely not.”

Second question:

• I’ve seen message traffic saying the new legislation poses a “sneak attack on TRICARE.” Is that true?

• MOAA’s answer:

The Senate bill language has been public for months, and we don’t believe there was any intent to disadvantage TRICARE beneficiaries, though it didn’t explicitly state that TRICARE is “qualifying coverage.” Just to make it clear, the House unanimously passed separate legislation on March 20, deeming TRICARE as “qualifying coverage” under the new law. The Senate is expected to pass the same legislation shortly. Defense Secretary Gates has issued a statement asserting that health reform “won’t have a negative effect on TRICARE.”

Everyone in the Administration and in the House and Senate, of both parties, agrees TRICARE and VA coverage must be held harmless. But there’s been inevitable debate among legislators about who cares most and who’s doing what to protect troops and vets.

And a couple more:

Question: I’ve seen message traffic saying that the new law will end TRICARE as of 2014, and that TRICARE beneficiaries will then have to buy other coverage. Is that true?

Answer: That’s definitely NOT true. There’s nothing like that in the new law.

Question: Can I expect my TRICARE enrollment fee, premiums, deductibles or co-pays to go up because of this legislation?

Answer: No, there’s nothing in the legislation that would change any TRICARE fees.

MOAA continues:

That said, it’s unrealistic to think that TRICARE fees will never go up, even if retired pay doubles or triples over a retiree’s lifetime. But it will be deficit concerns and DoD budget problems, not national health reform, that drive any future changes in TRICARE fees.

Finally, on another alleged horror perpetrated by Democrats:

Question: Is it true that the new legislation cuts payments to doctors by 21%?

Answer: No, that’s NOT true. In fact, it’s PREVIOUS law that calls for a 21% cut in Medicare and TRICARE payments to doctors as of April 1. Congress is working on separate legislation to prevent that from happening.

And so it goes on and on.

If you have received an e-mail or have been told about the horrible things the recently passed health care legislation does to our military, don’t panic. Please consult this excellent and objective MOAA “Questions and Answers” list here.