Obama to cut medical benefits for active, retired military, not union workers

[Anonymous]

http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-spokane/obama-to-cut-medical-benefits-for-active-retired-military-not-union-workers

[Anonymous]

Aren't union workers paid either by their unions or by the companies? Not by the feds?

[Anonymous]

The medical benefits of defense contractor employees has nothing to do with the Federal budget. Neither Obama nor the Reps could cut it anyway. Moreover, the fact that a conversative comments is criticing Tricare cuts is absurd. A true conservative could propose eliminating Tricare. Tricare is a socialist medical system, where the USG pays for and provides the actual medical services. In Obamacare, the USG neither pays for nor provides actual medical services. Insurance companies do the paying, and private doctors do the providing, all within a structure created by the states and broadly by the Feds.

[Anonymous]

No, public sector unionized employees are not paid by their unions. They pay dues to the union which then bargains on their behalf--for remuneration like that discussed in the article. O doesn't want to piss off the unions by requiring that unionized employees be treated like the military, but the retired military are to help keep Obamacare afloat.

[Anonymous]

I may be wrong, but I don't think this is talking about defense contractor employees. It is about civilian DOD employees who are unionized.

[Anonymous]

Wow, they need to modify cost sharing for sure. $460 a year for family coverage for a retired colonel? That's insane.

[Anonymous]

Any step in the right direction is good. We need to compensate military families fairly and well, but they pay a pittance towards their health care and it's really not reasonable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The medical benefits of defense contractor employees has nothing to do with the Federal budget. Neither Obama nor the Reps could cut it anyway. Moreover, the fact that a conversative comments is criticing Tricare cuts is absurd. A true conservative could propose eliminating Tricare. Tricare is a socialist medical system, where the USG pays for and provides the actual medical services. In Obamacare, the USG neither pays for nor provides actual medical services. Insurance companies do the paying, and private doctors do the providing, all within a structure created by the states and broadly by the Feds.

The conversation has nothing to do with contractors. Many DOD Employees are GS level jobs and directly employed by the federal government. They are unionized, and its much easier to target a non-unionized workforce than the unionized ones. Have you seen how much work many of these GS civilians do? I swear, some are paid to push enter on a keyboard all day. Whats worse, if they suck, they are usually transferred to a different job, its very hard to fire them.

[Anonymous]

OMFG a retired colonel and his family pay ONLY $460 a YEAR for health care.

W.T.F.?? Of course their premiums should go up. That's insane!

This article talks about shared hardship. But it's pretty clear that one group of government retirees has not done any sharing when it comes to health care.

OP did you even read the numbers?!!

[Anonymous]

But it's pretty clear that one group of government retirees has not done any sharing when it comes to health care.

They sure did a whole hell of a lot of other sharing....many of them body parts........or worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

But it's pretty clear that one group of government retirees has not done any sharing when it comes to health care.

They sure did a whole hell of a lot of other sharing....many of them body parts........or worse.

+2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OMFG a retired colonel and his family pay ONLY $460 a YEAR for health care.

W.T.F.?? Of course their premiums should go up. That's insane!

This article talks about shared hardship. But it's pretty clear that one group of government retirees has not done any sharing when it comes to health care.

OP did you even read the numbers?!!

Union scum didn't sacrifice a damn thing for America

[Anonymous]

And a lot never saw combat. From late 1971 till the 1st gulf war very few people saw combat. You could put 20-30 years in with no combat. One did not see a lot of CIBs in the late 80's But I think they are going to go after this and other retirement stuff. Republicans are already talking about retirement pay.

[Anonymous]

A lot of union members serviced in the military. What did you do?

[Anonymous]

To the extent that the article refers to DOD civilian employees not the military, the issues are separate. DOD civilian employees are treated the same as the rest of the Federal govt. And those employees pay a considerably higher share of their medical benefits than then military. Moreover, unlike military, they already have had multiple years of frozen wages. The article is typical half-truths.