{"id":284592,"date":"2011-02-28T14:08:11","date_gmt":"2011-02-28T14:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/02\/28\/military-health-costs-up-300\/"},"modified":"2011-02-28T14:08:11","modified_gmt":"2011-02-28T14:08:11","slug":"military-health-costs-up-300","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/02\/28\/military-health-costs-up-300\/","title":{"rendered":"Military health costs up 300%"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div readability=\"100.05453982\">    <!-- KEEP --><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/69ed333dhealth.top_.jpg\" alt=\"Military health care costs eating a hole in Pentagon budget\" width=\"475\" height=\"246\" border=\"0\" class=\"cnnstoryImageFull\" \/><span id=\"fb-recommend\"\/><br \/>\n<span>By Charles Riley, staff reporter<\/span><span>February 28, 2011: 9:05 AM ET<\/span><!--startclickprintexclude--><br clear=\"all\"\/><!--endclickprintexclude--><!-- CONTENT --><\/p>\n<p>NEW YORK (CNNMoney) &#8212; The cost of military health care, up 300% in the past decade, is eating a giant hole in the Pentagon&#8217;s budget, according to a report released Monday by a group of defense experts.<\/p>\n<p>The Defense Department expects to spend $52.5 billion on health care in 2012, a 300% increase since 2001, the report says. By 2015, health care will account for 10% of the Pentagon budget.<\/p>\n<p><!-- REAP --><!--startclickprintexclude--><!--endclickprintexclude--><!-- \/REAP --><\/p>\n<p>The eye-popping numbers have set <a href=\"http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2010\/12\/07\/news\/economy\/military_health_care\/index.htm\">alarm bells<\/a> ringing inside the Pentagon.<\/p>\n<p>The report, from the left-leaning Center for American Progress, lays out a way to cut $15 billion a year from the Pentagon&#8217;s bloated health care budget.<\/p>\n<p>The target: An insurance program called Tricare that accounts for much of the cost increase.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, fees for some of the 9.6 million service members who participate in the program haven&#8217;t risen since 1995. And enrollees pay rates far below what they would find in the private sector.<\/p>\n<p><!-- REAP --><!--startclickprintexclude--><!--endclickprintexclude--><!-- \/REAP --><\/p>\n<p>Fees for one popular Tricare program &#8212; called Tricare Prime &#8212; stand at $38 a month, or $460 a year for an entire family. Individual retirees pay $230 a year.<\/p>\n<p>The report advocates for a gradual increase in enrollment fees and deductibles for working-age retirees who can afford to pay.<\/p>\n<p>It would also raise costs on retirees who use a program called Tricare for Life, which is a supplemental policy for veterans enrolled in Medicare.<\/p>\n<p>Those enrollees would pay a $120 annual enrollment fee, and the program would no longer cover the first $500 in expenses, and would increase cost-sharing with Medicare. <\/p>\n<p>The plan would also limit coverage for high-income working-age retirees, many of whom are able to secure insurance through their currently employer, but instead choose Tricare for its rock-bottom price, and it would peg premium levels to those of Medicare Part B.<\/p>\n<p>The changes advocated in the report would not change health care services provided to active duty troops.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While the Defense Department must continue to provide top quality care to our men and women in uniform &#8212; and their dependents, and our military retirees &#8212; the Pentagon&#8217;s health care system simply cannot afford to continue on its current trajectory without undermining military readiness and increasing our already debilitating deficit,&#8221; the report says.<\/p>\n<p>The report&#8217;s authors include <a href=\"http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2011\/02\/11\/news\/economy\/lawrence_korb_defense_obama_budget\/index.htm\">Lawrence Korb<\/a>, who served as assistant secretary of defense between 1981 and 1985, are not the only ones looking for ways to control costs. The Pentagon&#8217;s 2012 budget request lays out its own proposal for cost control that includes a modest increase in enrollment fees.<\/p>\n<p>The Pentagon has sought to modify Tricare in recent years, but has run up against strong opposition from members of Congress.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In recent years the department has attempted modest increases in premiums and co-pays to help bring costs under control, but has been met with a furious response from the Congress and veterans groups,&#8221; Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said. &#8220;The proposals routinely die an ignominious death on Capitol Hill.&#8221; \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2011\/02\/28\/news\/economy\/tricare_pentagon_budget\/index.htm?section=money_topstories&#038;utm_source=feedburner&#038;utm_medium=feed&#038;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fmoney_topstories+%28Top+Stories%29#TOP\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/0e63013ebug.gif\" alt=\"To top of page\" border=\"0\" width=\"7\" height=\"7\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- \/CONTENT --><!--startclickprintexclude--><!--startclickprintexclude--><br \/>\n<!--endclickprintexclude--><!--endclickprintexclude--><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/69ed333dhealth.top_-150x150.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>More:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/rss.cnn.com\/~r\/rss\/money_topstories\/~3\/GWPLxFf7Rfs\/index.htm\" title=\"Military health costs up 300%\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Military health costs up 300%<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> By Charles Riley, staff reporter February 28, 2011: 9:05 AM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney) &#8212; The cost of military health care, up 300% in the past decade, is eating a giant hole in the Pentagon&#8217;s budget, according to a report released Monday by a group of defense experts. The Defense Department expects to spend $52.5 billion on health care in 2012, a 300% increase since 2001, the report says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Military health costs up 300% - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/02\/28\/military-health-costs-up-300\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Military health costs up 300% - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"By Charles Riley, staff reporter February 28, 2011: 9:05 AM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The cost of military health care, up 300% in the past decade, is eating a giant hole in the Pentagon&#039;s budget, according to a report released Monday by a group of defense experts. 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