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Military Health Care

Friday, November 18, 2011
By Anthony P. James, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Lompoc

I strongly reject any proposal offered by the Congressional Budget Office to enact budget savings options that would seek to drive military retirees away from using their earned health care benefits. Raising the cost of their Tricare [military health care] fees by thousands of dollars every year will jeopardize their access to quality health care. A great majority of retirees have pre-existing military injuries and have earned the right to selective health care.

Retirees won’t be able to afford health care for themselves or family members; it would have been better to die on the battle field fighting for your freedom. The basic pay of countless military members was capped by budget-driven reductions during the 1980s and 1990s. Don’t now change the rules and raise Tricare fees for those who have “borne the battle” and whose sacrifice would now cost them their earned healthcare benefit.

I recognize the issues facing our United States, its economy, national debt, and unemployment. Those who have secured America’s basic freedom should not be penalized by the nation which they honorably served.

Hear my voice as one of many who are the continuation of We the People, asking that you firmly reject the Congressional Budget Office’s outrageous

proposals. Let’s not balance the deficit by

having people unable to use their earned military healthcare benefits.

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