{"id":84276,"date":"2019-01-16T15:55:09","date_gmt":"2019-01-16T19:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=84276"},"modified":"2019-01-16T14:53:27","modified_gmt":"2019-01-16T18:53:27","slug":"raising-tricare-fees-and-cutting-veterans-benefits-to-slash-deficit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=84276","title":{"rendered":"Raising TRICARE fees and Cutting Veterans Benefits to Slash Deficit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Retiree receiving medical attention at David Grant USAF Medical Center. Photo by Bennie J. Davis III.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The good idea fairies have been working overtime at the Congressional Budget Office. After the “whacking” of wands across analysts’ heads, the CBO released their latest suggestions on what should be cut or reduced in order to help reduce the budget deficit over the next 10 years.<\/p>\n

One of their recommendations is to reduce BAH to 80% of average housing costs. Another involves reducing funding for ship construction. They’re recommending raising the social security retirement eligibility age, and reducing disability compensation for those who are eligible for social security benefits.<\/p>\n

From Military.com:<\/span><\/p>\n

The CBO suggested that increasing Tricare enrollment fees for working-age retirees — those under age 65 — could help slash the deficit by $12.6 billion. To obtain this, it said, the Defense Department should more than double annual enrollment fees for individuals and families enrolled in Tricare Prime and institute annual fees of $485 for an individual and $970 for a family for Tricare Select. Most working-age retirees currently pay no enrollment fees for Tricare Select.<\/p>\n

The CBO also suggested instituting enrollment fees for Tricare for Life, the program that serves as supplemental coverage for military retirees on Medicare. Analysts estimated that the Defense Department could save $12 billion between 2021 and 2028 if it adopted annual enrollment fees of $485 for an individual or $970 for a family for Tricare for Life, in addition to the Medicare premiums most military retirees 65 and older pay.<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With retiree cost share going up, they’d look for other options in the commercial market. The CBO argues that this should reduce the government’s cost share.<\/p>\n

Veterans aren’t off the hook either. CBO suggested removing some disability compensation eligibility in order to save money for the government. Rated 30% or less? The CBO doesn’t think you should be getting your compensation.<\/p>\n

More from military.com:<\/span><\/p>\n

Narrowing eligibility for disability compensation for seven diseases the Government Accountability Office has said are not caused or aggravated by military service, including arteriosclerotic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Crohn’s disease, hemorrhoids, multiple sclerosis, osteoarthritis, and uterine fibroids. This option would save $33 billion over 10 years.<\/p>\n

Ending the VA’s individual unemployability payments to disabled veterans when they turn 67, the retirement age for receiving full Social Security benefits, which would save an estimated $48 billion.<\/p>\n

Reducing disability benefits to veterans older than 67 who are receiving Social Security payments. This could save the government $11 billion.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Eliminating disability compensation for 1.3 million veterans with disability rates below 30 percent, saving $38 billion over an eight-year period.<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They’re also recommending getting rid of manned human space missions.<\/p>\n

Military.com has more details<\/a>. You could also get the details of the report here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The good idea fairies have been working overtime at the Congressional Budget Office. After the “whacking” … Raising TRICARE fees and Cutting Veterans Benefits to Slash Deficit<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-military-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84276\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}