Military Service to Cost an Arm and a Leg Under ObamaCare

As the dust settles over one of the most contentious debates in US history, many of the nation's veterans are wondering what ObamaCare means specifically for them, given their unique situation and the social compact they made with their government to care for them in return for their service and quite possibly their lives. Considering that there are over 26 million living veterans, most of whom participate in either Veterans Administration health programs or Tricare, any legislation to drastically alter the nation's health care system will most certainly have an effect on them that is anything but positive.

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Three of the essential components of Barack Obama's government takeover of the US health care system are annual taxes on insurance companies, annual taxes on companies that produce branded prescription drugs and annual taxes on companies that produce durable medical equipment. If you are in the VA or Tricare systems, you can rest assured you will be affected. ObamaCare mandates that annual taxes are to be imposed on all domestic and foreign manufacturers of any branded prescriptions procured for human consumption by any "covered entity" in the US health care system, including the VA and Tricare programs. The way these fees are calculated is designed to regulate the industry such that beyond the steep annual fees which rise with annual profits, any single drug company will incur additional penalties which are tied to the percentage that their profit margins exceed those of their competitors. ObamaCare also mandates annual taxes on manufacturers of durable medical equipment and devices and penalizes profits marginally over competitors, regardless of whether that profit was obtained through efficiency and cost-cutting or illegal activity. The list of products that fall into this category, much like the list of individuals this part of the legislation will affect is enormous. Every single living veteran, past, present and future who seeks medical tests, undergoes surgery, wears a prosthesis, or has any kind of implant will be affected. The same disincentives that apply to the drug companies apply here; a company's gross profits are taxed at a ratio equal to the ratio of their gross profits to their competitors'. ObamaCare mandates the same draconian disincentives on insurance providers retroactive to December 31, 2008, annual taxes and penalty ratios for profits over competitors. It remains to be seen how this will affect the VA, but it will devastate Tricare and its already strained reimbursement rates. Taken together, these three elements of so-called reform will seriously hamper the ability of our wounded warriors to get the world-class care that they fought for. The care that we owe them. The cost of research and development of prescription drugs, the cost of all manner of crucial, life-saving devices and the cost of providing insurance coverage itself will now become far more expensive. These costs will simply be passed on to veterans and civilians alike in the form of higher costs, which will result in either higher taxes or less incentive for those companies providing these products or services to conduct research or expand, exacerbating the entire cycle of industry strangulation and government control. If you think $30.00 aspirin is outrageous, just wait a couple of years. Like this veteran, the federal government already knows this. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki already released a statement attempting to quell what he characterized as "unfounded fears" about health care delivery to the nation's veterans, citing assurances from Democrat Armed Services Chairman and ObamaCare supporter Ike Skelton (D-MO). But, both are being less than honest. Skelton's exemption of military health plans only applies to how they are treated with respect to the un-Constitutional individual mandate, they'll still be taxed and penalized. There's no way for Shinseki or Skelton to know what's going to happen to Tricare or the VA, because no one does. ObamaCare also calls for a study to be commissioned to measure the specific effects of these taxes and penalties on the quality of care delivered by the VA and Tricare. One would hope that their government would have done that due diligence, read the law and studied its impacts before implementation, but I digress. An entire generation of World War II and Korean-era veterans has already been robbed of the health care they were promised in return for their service, despite legally-binding contracts. Any objective observer knows there are unintended consequences in every piece of legislation and multi-thousand page bills are no exception. In this case, it appears that there are also intended consequences; government control of the entire health care system, including what care you can receive and at what price, down to the tip of a retired veteran's cane. I know it, Barack Obama knows it, Eric Shinseki knows it, Ike Skelton knows it and now you know it. It's time for able-bodied and disabled veterans from every generation to protest this undermining of their major support system with a nationwide, 26 million-strong blanket party.