OntheWilderSide

Greens urge full Tricare funding for military
retirees, National Guard reservists

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Green Party candidates and leaders urged Congress to reject the Bush Administration's attempts to raise fees and reduce coverage under the Pentagon's Tricare medical system, and called on Congress and President Bush to provide coverage for all members of the National Guard.

"The White House and Pentagon have placed American service members, including National Guard reservists, at peril in a war based on greed and global military dominance, while
undermining and denying their benefits," said Howie Hawkins, a Vietnam era Marine veteran and candidate for the Green nomination for U.S. Senator from New York.  "Americans who truly support our troops are demanding that they be withdrawn from Iraq immediately, and that they
receive the health coverage and health care they
deserve."

A 2005 report sponsored by the National Guard Association of the United States noted that 21% of reservists lack basic health insurance and recommended extending Tricare to these 865,000 reservists and their dependents for life.
According to the report, the National Guard now represents 50% of all U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan; an AP newswire reported that in a two-month period at the end of 2005, 56% of U.S. deaths in Iraq were reservists.
Greens defended full funding for Tricare, and noted the following:

• The White House and Pentagon wants to change health care for military retirees from a right granted by law to a privilege that can be arbitrarily revoked.  "The Bush Administration wants to break a promise made to all members of the U.S. Armed Forces," said Richard Scott,
Online Fundraising and Outreach Coordinator for the Green Party, a Vietnam era veteran, and a Veteran for Peace.

• The plan to reduce Tricare coverage and raise fees unfairly pits current service members against retirees.

• David S.C. Chu, Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness has claimed that retirees and veterans "are taking away from the nation's ability to defend itself" by enjoying the benefits promised to them, blaming Americans who have answered the call to sacrifice for what the
Defense Department claims are budgetary shortfalls in defense spending.

• While the Bush Administration blames military personnel for cost overruns, a congressional investigation has uncovered evidence that billions of dollars have been wasted in Iraq because of failures by contractors to accomplish
projects as part of Iraq's 'reconstruction.'  The inspection team is investigating 72 cases of alleged fraud and corruption involving U.S., European, and Middle Eastern companies.  ("Billions Wasted in Iraq, Says US Audit," The
Guardian, May 1, 2006 http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0501-04.htm

"The Bush White House and the Rumsfeld Defense
Department have shown little regard for the lives
and well-being of service members since the beginning of the Iraq invasion," said Ed Boyd, Green candidate for Governor of Maryland www.EdBoydforGovernor.org and a veteran of the U.S. Navy.  "The administration sent
troops into battle with insufficient protective equipment, and exposed troops and Iraqi civilians to toxic chemical weapons like depleted uranium and white phosphorus.  The President's rejection of our obligation to provide full coverage adds insult against older soldiers to injury of
younger troops."

The Green Party of the United States has strongly opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and has called for an immediate end for an occupation and for impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney for numerous violations of law, abuses of power, and deceptions used to justify the
invasion.  Greens noted that tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians and more than 2,400 U.S. troops have been killed in the war.

The party supports single-payer national health insurance, which will provide every American with guaranteed health care, regardless of age, income, ability to pay, or prior medical condition, at a cost to working people far below
what they now pay for private coverage.

"The provision of Tricare to all our reservists will be a good start, but we need to enact a more fundamental solution to the health care crisis — national health insurance based on a single-payer insurance entity like Medicare or the VA, which
will not only keep costs down but help incentivize the highest quality care," said Dr.Henry Duke, founder of Alabama Health Care for All, member of Physicians for a National Health Program http://www.pnhp.org, and a Green Party activist from Alabama.

MORE INFORMATION

The National Guard Association of the United States
Legislative Fact Sheet: Tricare for the National Guard and Reserve
www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2005/mar/guard_insurance/tricar
efactsheet.pdf

"Faith No More? The strong bond of trust that retired service members thought they had regained is in danger of unraveling." By Robert S. Dudney, Editor in Chief, Air Force
Magazine Online, April 2006, Vol. 89, No. 4
www.afa.org/magazine/April2006/0406edit.asp

"Retirees Fire Back on Tricare"
By Tom Philpott, Contributing Editor, Air Force
Magazine Online, May 2006, Vol. 89, No. 5
www.afa.org/magazine/may2006/0506congress.asp

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