TP  HEALTH CARE — FACT CHECK: HEALTH CARE REFORM WILL NOT MOVE MILITARY HEALTH CARE ‘TO THE DEPARTMENT THAT HANDLES WELFARE’: This week, Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA) told KUSI in San Diego that one of the most offensive parts of the health care reform law is that it will move TriCARE, the health program covering service members and their families, out of the Defense Department and “to the department that handles welfare.” He added that once members of the military find out, “all hell is going to break loose.” But there is no basis to Bilbray’s claim, which he has repeated to other outlets. The Administration for Children and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services administers the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, aka “welfare,” and nothing in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act says that TriCARE will be moved there. “Those who depend on TriCARE should rest assured — TriCARE will not change under health insurance reform,” HHS spokesman Nick Papas told The Progress Report. TriCARE spokesman Austin Camacho has also said, “Tricare is a DoD agency, and I’m quite sure it will stay that way.” Even Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), appearing on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on Monday, insisted that the Affordable Care Act won’t affect military care. “It is unfortunate that some continue to raise what is now even more clearly a false alarm that is apparently meant to frighten veterans and their families in order to prompt them to oppose the pending legislation,” said Vietnam Veterans of America President John Rowan. The American Legion, usually one of the most conservative veterans groups, has said military members “can rest assured that their TRICARE benefits are secure under the law signed by President Obama.”