A Christmas Present from the Department of Defense

A Department of Defense (DOD) panel under pressure to cut costs for military service has just issued a Christmas present to all military retirees. They declared that military health benefits for retired military personnel were too costly.

The report said the relatively low health fees paid by military retirees versus the growing cost of military health benefits are "out of step with overall trends in the U.S. health care system" and "unfair to the U.S. taxpayer."

The report states that what the retiree currently pays for health care will increase by thousands of dollars per year. In many cases the added cost will be in the neighborhood of $3000 per year. Of course it is likely that the cost will be raised annually so that as a retiree approaches their golden years they will be charged even more.

One has to wonder if this Christmas present is how the government thanks our soldiers for 20 or more years of service?

When soldiers enter combat - it is not a business meeting. Long separations from family, deployments throughout the world, 24 hour or longer days on maneuvers or training exercises in desert or extreme cold weather environments are not sales meetings. There are very view picnic lunches.

From the moment one volunteers to serve our nation they give up any semblance of a normal life. For over 20 years and in many cases more, a service member is required to be on call and family duties are overshadowed by military responsibilities. One has to think that some payment for later health care was extracted from each soldier for their service.

What would be unfair to taxpayers is that no one would be willing to defend the United States. Currently the services pay up-front bonuses of six figures to those willing to accept the challenge and they are barely making their quotas. Treatment like this might explain it. I daresay that treatment such as this will only present another obstacle to recruiting for the volunteer military and might force the nation to return to a draft with a very small core of professionals to provide leadership and expertise in the event of war.