Name:   MAJ USA RET - Subject:   Squeeze Date:   2/28/2012 8:24:51 AM (updated 2/28/2012 8:31:04 AM)

Comrade, medical professionals do not profit from TriCare. 

TriCare does not pay in full on any medical charges.  TriCare only pays part of the billing… an amount it believes is acceptable.  The doctor allows some “discount” and the rest is billed to the military retiree as co-pay.  It is this co-pay that differentiates the military retiree from Medicare/Medicaid patients.  With Medicare/Medicaid the doctor get nothing out of the wallets of those patients.

When I become 65, I will have to pay a Medicare Part B premium as a condition of keeping my TriCare medical.  The military enforces this by making my ID card expire in my 65^th birth month. This Medicare Part B premium will be an additional out-of-pocket added to my co-pay.

You see, the Obama administration realizes that military retirees, unlike the indigent and those who did not plan for retirement, have some money from which to skim. 

Had I taken a rocket or a mortar or an IED or an SVEST or a bullet in Iraq, they would not be able to squeeze me for this.