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| Science & Technology |
| Unified Military Medical Command by 1 Jan 2007 |
| 2006-09-14 |
| The Air Force, the only service opposed to creation of a Unified Medical Command, saw its arguments get strafed, rocketed and bombed during a Sept. 6 meeting of the Defense Business Board, a group of outside management experts that advises Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The board unanimously recommended that Rumsfeld immediately appoint a task force to oversee establishment of a Unified Medical Command by Jan. 1, 2007, a year sooner than Defense officials had planned. The command would take charge of all direct-care health services of the Army, Navy and Air Force. It would streamline medical logistics, purchasing, information technology, research and development, facility operations, and the education, training and assignment of medical personnel. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #5 Tex, I believe that this medical command will be comparable to Transportation Command. The individual services are still responsible for the administration of their bodies (i.e., Military Sealift Command is still Navy, MTMC is still Army, etc., but all are part of TRANSCOM), but the unified command will make oversee tasking of the assets. |
| Posted by: Dreadnought 2006-09-14 13:32 |
| #4 I was a USAF nurse back in the mid 80's. I wonder what this new command is going to do for uniforms, ranks etc.? |
| Posted by: texhooey 2006-09-14 13:16 |
| #3 * The Tricare Management Activity, which oversees the triple-option health plan for military families and retirees, be realigned to function alongside a unified command, with a new focus on policy and oversight. Management of the Tricare benefit in time would be “outsourced” to the private sector. Back in the 70s when the military went VolAr, they paid squat. The Donks were also out to punish the military for Vietnam by financially strangling them. So one of the recruit/retention gambits was that the government/military will provide med care in retirement. You get your pay off 'later'. Now like any business that faces increasing costs in that sector, they're going to off load not only the service but they've also started to off load the cost on the user. Me? I understand the financial pinch and will work around. However, I'd at least expect 'leaders' to step forward and admit that they're reneging on the advertising, that the costs are prohibitive to sustain, that it has to be rationed. Cause this is what is in the playing cards for every other 'entitlement' program the government runs. If you're going to make the uniform military face it today after you screwed them on pay and now are going back on representations made before, you better damn well be warning the rest of the population now - you're next. |
| Posted by: Chulet Throsh6262 2006-09-14 13:13 |
| #2 The Air Force knows this is only step one. This is going to end up with the Air Force with the same relationship with the Army as Naval Avation and the Marine Corps have with the Navy. And that's the way it should be. The Air Force go it alone attitude was a major factor is the Israeli debacle. We don't need that. We need an Air Force whose CoS flew A-10s. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-09-14 06:39 |
| #1 saw its arguments get strafed, rocketed and bombed Navy and Marines got air superiority against USAF. |
| Posted by: JFM 2006-09-14 04:38 |