Interesting quote from an Air Force Retiree News Service story today (“DoD proposes Tricare hikes for younger military retirees”):

When the Tricare health care program for active duty and retired military members and their families was established in 1995, retirees then were contributing about 27 percent of the cost of their benefit, Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said during an interview with Pentagon Channel and American Forces Press Service reporters at the Pentagon.

However, military health care costs doubled from $19 billion in 2001 to just over $37 billion in the 2006 defense budget, Winkenwerder said. And today’s average military retiree contribution for health care coverage has dropped to about 10 to 12 percent, he said.

“Their contribution did not change, while the value of the benefit continued to rise,” Winkenwerder said. If approved by Congress and signed off by the president, the proposed Tricare rate hikes for retirees under age 65 would be phased in over fiscal 2007 and 2008. That should bring up younger retirees’ share of Tricare costs closer to the 1995 level, he said.

(emphasis mine)

Does he think we’re stupid? Anyone remember what the cost of health care was for retirees before 1995?

For more information, see Timmer’s post here.