TRICARE Inpatient Co-pay Increases 21%

[DoggyDaddy]

DoD Announces TRICARE Inpatient Co-pay Increases/TREA Calls for Reversal-For the new fiscal year (starting October 1). DoD unexpectedly announced increases for inpatient co-pays for many TRICARE beneficiaries. This surprising announcement includes an increase of $110 a day (from $535 to $645 a 21% increase!) for military retirees, their families and survivors who are now covered by TRICARE Standard.
TREA immediately wrote to Secretary Gates urging him to immediately reverse this decision. We noted that this was contrary to his announcement that he would not propose any TRICARE fee increases for FY2010!
This co-pay is already extremely high and much more than most civilian health care plans. For the last 3 years Congress had barred any increase in this co-pay. It did not include a similar provision in this year’s NDAA based on the Secretary’s assurances.
We have not yet received a response from the SecDef. This increase would not affect beneficiaries of TRICARE Prime or TRICARE for Life (TFL). But it may very well indicate what is to come. Please call the House and Senate Armed Services and urge Chairmen Representative Ike Skelton (D-MO) (202-225-4151) and Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) (202-224-3871) to act to stop this unfair increase. Remember this may be the first step of many planned moves. We must be clear to Washington that this is totally unacceptable.

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[DorianM]

I know my neighbor who has private health care has a copay of $35. I don't know if it is high deductible health insurance or exactly what type it is.

Hopefully TRICARE copay will either go down or not increase any more. That is expensive and it doesn't make sense when private care copay is usually much less.

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[jmarceau]

Does anyone care at all about Vets anymore? Would be nice if an investigative reporter took a look at the promised benefits that have been stripped away.

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