be moving in the right direction. sandra: it reminds me of something i had in front of me. the va health care costs are eating the defense department alive. i thought that was important to get in there and we did talk about the change that is being brought about for our veterans in the va on the state. no doubt about that. health care costs are rising in the private sector for every american, and it s certainly no different inside the united states military and inside the va. health care is expensive no matter who is administrating it, and those costs are rising every single year. in the defense department, the personnel costs to include paying our troops, taking care of health care, taking care of retired community is somewhere around $0.61 on a dollar. that is staggering and it s going up. sandra: i also wanted to ask you, thank you for hanging on here for us, we are waiting to hear out of the white house shortly here holding that off-camera gaggle. iran holding the annual
defense department alive. the program is called tricare. here is where it stands right now. 10 million people are eligible and the cost has exploded. the price tag more than doubled to $50 billion in the past decade. the plan is short on specifics, but we know this much. fees would go up for military retirees under 65, but rates for older retirees would stay the same. and health care for active duty troops still free. and gates says it could save up to $7 billion over the next five years. paul reikoff is the founder and executive director for veterans across america. paul, the defense the chief has tried to do this before, but it never really got anywhere. what do you think makes this announcement so different? well, times are obviously tougher in america and definitely in washington. but that s no reason to start nickel and diming our veterans coming home from iraq and