In this particular case, the beneficiaries fought back:I think/hope by now people understand that Government made a lot of promises to a lot a people that it wasn't in a position to keep. Consequently we the people aka the Government are all going to have made additional sacrifices in the form or higher taxes and reduced benefits.
Bud Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Among other endeavors, in 1996 Day filed a class action lawsuit for breach of contract against the United States government on behalf of military retirees who were stripped of their military medical care benefits at age 65 and told to apply for Medicare. Although winning the case in the district court in 2001, the judgment against the U.S. was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals in 2002. The U.S. Congress later redressed this situation by establishing the "TRICARE For Life" (TFL) program, which restored TRICARE military medical benefits for career military retirees over the age of 65, making the retirees eligible for both programs with Medicare as the primary payer and TRICARE as the secondary payer.
IIRC the basis of Day's case was the informal oral promises made by thousands of military recruiters over two generations. The Supremes passed on the case because they felt it was a matter for law-making Congress, neatly turning the public eye on the legislative branch during an election year.
Considering the horsepower (and time) it took to achieve TFL, I don't think this sort of feat can be pulled off again. Reading between the lines of Tom Philpott's article,
Top Doc's Focus is Troop Health, Not Higher Fees
I think higher Tricare fees are nearly a certainty.
If it makes you feel better, Heardoc, that article mentions OPM has already thrown the federal civil-service employees under the bus:
At a Sept. 28 armed services committee hearing, ranking Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) seemed to be setting the table, asking Deputy Defense Secretary Bill Lynn, "Isn't the biggest cost escalation to DoD today in health care?"
Lynn conceded medical is the "largest account...growing at a substantial pace" and that in "the fiscal year 2012 budget I think we will be proposing to Congress some ideas about how to restrain health care costs."
Pressed by McCain, Lynn agreed health costs are growing "dramatically," in some recent years by 10 percent or higher.
That same day, at a breakfast meeting with reporters, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, called rising healthcare costs "unsustainable" and said, after 15 years, it's time to raise TRICARE fees.
A few days later the Office of Personnel Management announced health insurance premiums paid by federal civilian workers and retirees will jump in 2011 an average of 7.2 percent. That could apply more political pressure on Congress to accept some sort of TRICARE fee increase.