OPERATION HERO MILES

Alaska Airlines has joined with Delta and Southwest Airlines in a program that allows travelers to donate their frequent flyer mileage to help military warfighters catch free flights home to spend quality time with family and friends while on leave in the United States.

War veterans granted two weeks R&R leave arrive in the Washington DC area via military aircraft, but from there they must pay their own fares to their U.S. hometown destinations. Alaska Airlines does not offer service through BWI Airport but does offer service at nearby Washington Dulles and Reagan National Airport. The Veterans of Foreign Wars Foundation offers free shuttle service for these military personnel taking flights out of those airports.

Concerned about the excessive financial burden placed on these military personnel trying to visit with family, Rep. C.A. Ruppersberger (D-MD) created “Operation Hero Miles” to assist them and show the country’s appreciation for their patriotism and service to the nation.

The program of each participating airline may be found on the Web site at http://www.heromiles.org.

This site is a clearinghouse for these personnel, their families, and travelers filled with information about how to donate frequent flyer miles, how these military people can receive complimentary tickets, and other ways to help our troops serving our country in Iraq and Afghanistan

Ruppersberger is challenging all of the other airlines that offer service in the United States to follow suit and start similar programs of their own.

SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE
Tony Snows Comments on Fox News, Sunday 10/19/03
Forwarded by VADM Hal Koenig USN (Ret)

Rummaging through the Internet, I came across an alarming dispatch from the war, bearing the headline: AMERICANS ARE LOSING THE VICTORY

The upshot was that just seven months after the end of hostilities, things are a complete and deteriorating mess. Here are some of the more depressing details. A soldier says, “We’ve lost the peace. We can’t make it stick.”

The writer observes, “Never has American prestige in Europe (search) been lower. People never tire of telling you of the ignorance and rowdy-ism of American troops. The French warn that, Our policy is producing results opposite to those we planned.” Meanwhile, some troops are tired of talk about grants to the war-torn nation. Says one, “Let them pay for it. It’s their fault.”

And finally, this: “A great many Europeans feel that the cure has been worse than the disease… The time has come for our own future security, to give the best we have to the world instead of the worst.”

Sound familiar? Well, this has nothing to do with Iraq. It was written by John Dos Passos and published in Life Magazine on January 7, 1946, some five months after the end of WWII.

ON THE MEDICAL FRONT

THE GOOD NEWS: Social Security payments will increase by 2+ percent in 2004.
THE BAD NEWS: Medicare premiums to increase by 13+ percent in 2004, due to increased spending for doctor services, outpatient hospital care, and medical equipment used at home by beneficiaries.

The increase does not reflect a plan now under consideration to require elderly people with high incomes to pay higher premiums than other beneficiaries. Neither does it include costs for the new prescription drug program set for 2006

Congress updates the basic Medicare premium each year under a formula set by law. The level set is to cover about 25 percent of the cost of Part B of Medicare, for doctors services and outpatient care. General tax revenues cover the remaining 75 percent of Part B costs.

To give you some idea of how these costs have escalated since Medicare began, the initial monthly Medicare premium:

• In 1966 was $3. Ten years later it had risen to $7.20.
• By 1988, it had climbed to just under $25 per month.
• By 2001, it reached $50.
• Now, the estimate is $66+ for 2004.

Also, some Medicare beneficiaries will be hit in 2004 with a deductible increase in Part A, which includes payment for hospital stay, skilled nursing facilities and some home health care. The deductible will rise by $36 for a total $867. It is the only cost for up to 60 days of inpatient hospital care. Longer stays require additional fees.

Soaring health care costs have caused many employers to reduce or eliminate health benefits in their retirement package, but Congressional negotiators are working on tax incentives for employees and employers to set aside money to cover these threatened benefits.