During an interview with WVEC-TV in Norfolk, Virginia, President Obama avoided answering a question about the rising cost for TRICARE for our returning veterans.
Reporter: Speaking of benefits, sir, we went forward a little bit. Could we talk about TRICARE?
President Obama: Sure.
Reporter: Talking about our retirees and our future veterans. A lot of concern about higher enrollment fees may be on the way. Higher co-pays for prescriptions. Higher deductibles. Is that breaking faith with people who served? Volunteered to serve.
Obama: Obviously, I’ve been working very closely with our military in terms of how we deal with it, the health care situation. This is a rising cost in all institutions, but it is also a rising cost in our military. We spent about $50 billion just on health care costs. What I can assure you is, we’re never going to have a situation in which our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsman, they are not getting high quality care. And, you know, we’ll have to work through this budget process to figure out how do we, first of all, make the the health care system overall more efficient — how [do] we also make it more efficient for those who have served our country.