An Important Announcement

Health Care Reform Update 20: As you are most probably aware of by now, on the morning of 4 DEC, the Senate passed 60-39 a much amended H.R.3590, “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This vote and the previous House passage of this legislation is contrary with the growing sentiments of 2/3 of the American People who are against this “stealth” legislation. Regardless of which national poll you might consider this public disapproval of this legislation varies little from poll to poll. As the next step in the process is reconciliation of the significantly different House and Senate versions, but which neither makes provision to protect Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense health-care from the provisions of this legislation. Such protection would fulfill President Obama's promise made last August that neither program would "be affected by our efforts at broader health-care reform." Unless Tricare, Tricare for Life, and VA health care programs are exempted from a proposed excise tax, veterans and military retirees face the very real prospect of paying a new tax on so-called "Cadillac" health care plans, which Tricare and VA health-care might easily be considered. As has been pointed out by a number of federal employee labor unions, such a tax would "have a discriminatory impact on plans that cover older workers and retirees ..." Such excise tax could result in a tax increase of as much as 1.4% on veterans and military retirees and our widows, many of whom are retired on fixed incomes with no way to offset that additional tax other than by cutting back elsewhere in their family budgets.
If you could be impacted by this you have the option to contact your legislator and let him/her know of your concerns. Especially the very real potential that the near $500 Billion cuts in Medicare will adversely impact Tricare and Tricare for Life which are directly indexed to Medicare. If Medicare goes away then so do Tricare and Tricare for Life. Urge your legislator to immediately seek an amendment to H.R.3590 to make it clear that nothing in the reconciled bill act shall interfere with VA or DOD existing authorities and that VA and DOD health care programs are excluded from any excise tax on health care programs. If H.R.3950 is not so amended then request that he/she vote AGAINST this legislation when it comes to the House floor for a vote. To facilitate contacting your legislator USDR has provided an editable message at http://capwiz.com/usdr/issues/alert/?alertid=14493596&queueid=[capwiz:queue_id] that addresses the issue and can be automatically forwarded to your representative. [Source: USDR Action Alert 26 Dec 09 ++]