By John Smith Written For USMilitary.com
There isn?t another employer overseas that is American-based, other than the U.S. military, which sacrifices so much?for so little. Back home, there are family members that go through sacrifice as well, ranging from stress and separation anxiety. Today?s fighting men and women are coming back home and being labeled with PTSD because of time spent in Afghanistan and Iraq, something of which is the highest it has ever been. Now it seems that President Obama and his version of healthcare reform wants to strip any hope of service-members getting the treatment they need away.
In early 2012, President Obama stood before the nation and gave the yearly State of the Union speech. As every Commander-in-Chief before him, he thanked the soldiers of the U.S. military for all their hard work and dedication. He went on to use words like ?teamwork, selflessness and courage? when describing every soldier?s ability to accomplish the missions set in front of them. Osama bin Laden was dead and the conflict in Iraq was every bit but over. The only way to thank the people of the military, both active and veteran, was to cripple them by raising their Tricare premiums.
ObamaCare was now in full-swing and the world saw it. No one could believe it though. The president?s reasoning behind it was because he wanted to decrease spending. National defense spending, since Obama took office, has actually declined but this isn?t a good thing. National defense has always been regarded as one of the core constitutional areas of the United States government. One area that might have had an impact on Tricare being raised was entitlement spending, something of which has tripled since Obama took office.
National defense spending only covers about 15 percent of total spending per year while a massive 70% of the budget was used to pay for food, welfare, student aid, income and housing for Americans who are becoming dependent on government assistance. There are close to 22 million veterans right now and almost 1.5 million active duty soldiers. The numbers are just not adding up and that has soldiers around the country confused.
In fact, according to a survey that was ordered by the Fort Leavenworth Center for Army Leadership, military seems to be hitting a low point. Only a quarter of the men and women who serve say that the country is heading in the right direction and the president?s new health care plan and budget will only make things worse.
The cuts that are proposed by Obama are causing health care costs to increase exponentially for military families and even veterans. The civilian defense workers that work under a union will not be affected. These issues are causing a ripple effect in other areas like retaining and recruiting as well. Will soldiers turn away because it is too expensive to have healthcare? Some legislators in Washington say that this is Obama?s way of pushing military personnel out of Tricare and into private or state-run insurance agencies.
As it stands right now, the plan would increase annual premiums between 30% and 78% over the course of the first year. Then, during the next five years, your rates will increase anywhere between 94% and 345%. No matter how you do the math, the result will be the same: crippling healthcare.
