The current fees, unchanged in 11 years, are $230 a year for an individual and $460 for a family. That's far less than what civilian federal workers pay for health care, about $5,000 a year, and what most other people in the U.S. pay.

Damn!!! That's a hell of a lot cheaper than the rest us pay! I could actually afford health care at that cost! And they could easily charge them more for this and it would still be affordable. And I don't know where they come up with this "what most other people in the U.S." pay crap...not even close!

Consider making the military a career.  Spend 20 or more years of your life traveling to exotic places, carrying 130 pounds of gear for hours in 120 degrees of heat, getting shot at and blown up, being away from your family for long periods of time and being frequently reassigned.  Then you can look forward to retiring at far less than most government employees.  You may also have military service disabilities and get to constantly worry about whether the government will treat you and how much it will cost you out of pocket.  When you reach Social Security age you can look forward to worrying about how much of your Social Security and military reitrement pay the government will take back to pay off the national debt.

Walk a mile in those shoes before you complain about those of us in the military who have committed prime years of our lives to defend your right to complain. 

..Our military families already sacrafice more than enough. As it is we don't pay them enough to support there families, there are active duty personel that have to relay on food stamps to feed there family. This is not acceptable for our active duty personel who risk there lives for our freedom...Fix your budget elsewhere leave our men and women alone. They sacrafice enough. Those that are retired have earned theres with there sacrafices over the years. You want to mess with the entitlements mess with the butes that congress gets...

How is it that people can read but can't spell? Well maybe spelling is not what I am talking about. Their, there and they're. Two, too, and to. I know they sound the same but they are used differently. When I am reading comments it is like sticking a stick between the spokes in the wheel of my mind every time. Of course I understand what the person was trying to say but my impression of their comment is diminished. That being said, $460 for an entire family per year does seem rather low, and if we are not paying the military enough to afford that, we either need a smaller military or to cut money from somewhere else so that we can pay them more.

If the Pentagon is so concerned about the cost of healthcare for our service personnel, perhaps they should look at 3 areas:

(1) Back-end cost of care for service personnel who are seriously wounded in the wars we are fighting. Our soldiers aren't dying in wars like they did before, they are coming home with serious brain injuries and missing body parts. What do you think is happening with those brain injuries? Or those that require prosthetics? Someone has to care for the wounded and medical care is not cheap.

(2) The disgusting condition of our VA hospitals and clinics. These places are grossly understaffed and poorly maintained. Remember all the photos of rats and collapsing ceilings, rusted pipes, etc. from Walter Reed? So how do you expect someone with fresh, open wounds to heal in an environment like that?

(3) If the average wait time to get a Dr. appointment is 4-6 mos. (true in Florida, unsure about elsewhere) don't you think that a real problem ended up in a traditional ER, at a higher cost, because the VA could not or would not care for the vet?

So Pentagon, maybe you should figure out how to send FEWER soldiers into war or better equip those you send. Remember Rumsfeld's excuse that the cost of lead lining Jeeps (to shield against IED's) was too expensive? How are you feeling about that now? The lead liners would have been cheaper in the long run and not destroyed people's lives.

The budget problems created by these medical issues are the result of complete stupidity on the part of our government. Perhaps when people learn to think and they can see the long-term effects of their decisions of today, they will react more quickly to solve the real problem. Until then, expect more of the same.