According to a recent Stars and Stripes article, Defense Secretary Gates offered a brutal assessment of the TRICARE system. Not just the increasing expense, which will reach $65 Billion by 2015, but also a scathing report of bureaucratic hassles, difficulty in finding primary caregivers, long waits and having to drive long distances to see specialists.
Gates painted a bleak picture of the current and future issues for TRICARE and how its cost and processes are putting a financial strain on the military and a personal strain on the members who must use it, saying “We simply can’t sustain [it].”
