Tricare as a Model

For those of you who may not know, Tricare is the health insurance for the military. It also covers military retirees.

I really like it. The premiums are low, all my treatment is at regular civilian doctors, most of my medicine is free as well. Good stuff.

So, there are some folks who are saying this is a prime example of how government run healthcare would be for everybody.

As Kim du Toit would say, Nazzo fast, Guido.

First, Tricare took the place of the "free healthcare for life" military members were supposed to get after they retired. It isn't regular health insurance. The government spends a lot of money on it.

42 billion last year.

That's 42 billion for about 9 million covered people. That's 42 billion on 3% of the population.

Doing the quick math, we're getting into the trillions. Again.

They also require retirees like myself to use any other health insurance I might have first, then I can use Tricare as a secondary. And can I point out that the vast majority of active duty members (and their families) are under 40? Not a lot of extended care going on there. Any young service member unfortunate enough to require long term care are usually put out of the military and into the VA system.

The VA ... ah, I'll talk about them another time.

Hat tip to Moogie, who I finally blogrolled. Thought she was there, but no, just on my feed reader.

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