2005 Goals

Legislative Agenda: SBP fixes, health care, concurrent receipt, Army manpower, and family support top MOAA’s goals list for the coming year.

MOAA and the military community achieved another banner year in 2004, realizing a number of long-sought improvements in pay, benefits, and health care. Among our most significant victories were:

• elimination of the military “widows tax” over a relatively short 31¼2-year period for Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) annuitants age 62 and older;
• restoration of full longevity-based retired pay as of January 2005 for all 100-percent disabled retirees with at least 20 qualifying years of service;
• permanent military identification cards

for spouses and survivors age 75 and older;

• fee-based TRICARE Standard coverage for members of the Selected Reserve who have been mobilized for at least 90 days since Sept. 11, 2001;
• added manpower for the Army and Marine Corps to begin easing deployment burdens on troops and families; and
• a 3.5-percent pay raise for uniformed servicemembers — one-half percentage point above the average American’s raise — plus housing allowance increases to fully cover median housing costs for each locality.

Despite these significant gains, much more remains to be done. Our most urgent priorities for 2005 include:

• repeal of the law that makes survivors of members who died of service-connected causes give up a dollar of their SBP annuities for each dollar they receive from the VA;
• n accelerating the 2008 implementation date for 30-year paid-up SBP coverage;
• full elimination of the “disabled retiree tax” that continues to deny most disabled retirees their full earned retired pay, including an accelerated phase-in schedule for current eligible retirees;
• improved health care access under both TRICARE Standard and TRICARE Prime;
• expanded health care coverage and more appropriate retirement terms for Guard and Reserve members who are absorbing far more of the operational mission than was envisioned when the reserve system was built 50 years ago;
• additional manpower increases as necessary to match the vastly increased deployment requirements that are wearing out our active duty and Guard and Reserve forces and threatening a retention and readiness crisis if not relieved; and
• family support increases to better serve active duty and Guard and Reserve families, particularly those who do not have access to on-base support facilities.

The remainder of this column summarizes selected MOAA legislative objectives for the first session of the 109th Congress. To be successful, we need all members of the military and veterans’ community to lend mutual support to each other’s issues. If we only support those that affect us personally, we fragment our base of support and reduce the chance of success on every issue.

So read this column and call your representatives and senators, write letters, or send e-mails — but get involved!

If you have access to e-mail and don’t already receive MOAA’s weekly Legislative Update, we strongly suggest subscribing to stay informed and participate in our calls to action (see page 29).

Health Care Issues

Health program funding

MOAA will seek full funding for the Defense Health Program (DHP), working with Congress and DoD to ensure both military readiness and beneficiary needs are met, regardless of age, status, or location. This includes supporting realistic budget assumptions and working to ensure Congress fully funds any unanticipated contingency or other requirements that would overtax existing programs and budgets.

Continue to improve TRICARE

To improve benefit consistency, MOAA will seek to:

• increase access to civilian providers by reducing administrative deterrents to participation and ensuring implementation of new laws requiring DoD to identify areas with TRICARE Standard access problems, take action to attract more providers to participate in Standard, and assist beneficiaries who need help finding a TRICARE-participating provider;
• remain vigilant in protecting against arbitrary administrative reductions in Medicare/TRICARE reimbursement rates so more providers will accept Medicare and TRICARE;
• eliminate pre-authorization requirements for TRICARE Standard services and other administrative inconveniences;
• eliminate the 115-percent billing limit when TRICARE Standard is the second payer to other health insurance;
• reinstate TRICARE benefits for remarried widows when the second marriage ends, as already has been done for certain VA-eligible widows;
• codify requirements to continue TRICARE Prime networks in localities affected by base closures;
• provide a subsidy for the TRICARE Retiree Dental Plan;
• monitor and educate military family members about the implementation of the Extended Care Health Option program to meet the needs of severely disabled family members of active duty personnel; and
• seek increased funding for mental health/family counseling for deployed families.

Administration of new TRICARE contracts

Downsizing from 12 regions and four contractors to three regions and three contractors allows better coordination of health care benefits between regions. However, the start-up has not been without problems. MOAA will:

• work closely with DoD and TRICARE contractors to monitor implementation of the new contracts to ensure services are enhanced, not diminished, and the program remains beneficiary-focused;
• be attentive to see that Prime access standards are met in both civilian provider networks and military treatment facilities; and
• be on the alert to see that beneficiary needs are put foremost in administering authorizations and referrals for specialty care until DoD is able to develop an electronic program.

Guard/Reserve health care

MOAA is grateful to Congress for new legislative authority providing Selected Reserve members mobilized since Sept. 11, 2001, one year of fee-based TRICARE Standard coverage for each 90 days on active duty since that date. MOAA will seek to expand this coverage to include all drilling Guard and Reserve members, including guardmembers mobilized under state authority for federal homeland security missions. MOAA also will seek authority to give Guard and Reserve members the alternative option of having the government pay a share of any employer-provided health coverage during periods of mobilization. This is essential to minimize disruption of existing employer-provided family health coverage during the member’s activation.

Medicare Part B payments

MOAA will seek legislation to exempt retired servicemembers who entered military service before Dec. 7, 1956 (the date the law began specifying retiree care in military facilities would be on a “space-available” basis), from paying Medicare Part B premiums. The government should keep promises accepted in good faith by servicemembers by providing cost-free access to TRICARE For Life.

Pharmacy issues

MOAA will work with DoD and Congress to develop and maintain a comprehensive uniform pharmacy benefit for all beneficiaries with a robust formulary that preserves beneficiary options to obtain specific pharmaceuticals determined necessary by their providers. Working through our representative on the DoD Beneficiary Advisory Panel, MOAA will strive to maximize beneficiary choice, minimize beneficiary costs, and seek educational materials to help beneficiaries and providers understand and make the best use of the various TRICARE pharmacy options.

VA-DoD issues

The growing number of returning war-wounded troops from Iraq and Afghanistan highlights the need to speed up implementation of “seamless transition” initiatives between the DoD and VA health systems. Compatible medical records, a “one-stop” separation physical, and VA benefits determinations prior to discharge are among the most pressing seamless transition initiatives. MOAA will examine the needs of families who provide direct services to severely disabled veterans and seek appropriate resources for them during the post-separation adjustment.

MOAA will continue to watch for any new initiative that forces dual-eligible beneficiaries to choose between the DoD and VA health systems. DoD and VA planners must take responsibility for improving their coordination and budgeting practices rather than seeking to curtail military and veterans’ health care benefits and raise their costs.

Authorize FEHBP option

MOAA will seek legislation authorizing retired servicemembers and their families the option to elect coverage under the Federal Employees’ Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). Beneficiaries whose ability to use their military health coverage is frustrated because they cannot find a TRICARE-participating provider should have the opportunity to choose FEHBP on the same basis as federal civilian employees.

Pretax health premium payments

MOAA will push to authorize the purchase of health care benefits with pretax dollars, to include pretax payment of TRICARE Prime enrollment fees and premiums for TRICARE supplemental, long term care, and TRICARE dental insurance. Pretax premium payment already is a standard part of many private-sector and federal benefits packages, and military beneficiaries should have the same option.

Retired Pay And Survivor Issues

Eliminate SBP-DIC offset

MOAA seeks to repeal the law that requires a reduction in SBP benefits for any amount of Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) paid by the VA to survivors of servicemembers who died of service-connected causes. In the case of members whose deaths were caused by their service, the survivors should receive DIC as an added indemnity payment, without reducing SBP benefits. Most active duty deaths occur among relatively junior servicemembers, whose survivors are eligible for only modest SBP payments. Because these payments usually are lower than the DIC amount, most survivors of members killed on active duty lose most or all of their SBP benefit.

Under current law, they have a financial incentive to assign the SBP annuity to their children, if they have any, which means the SBP eligibility is lost entirely once the children reach the age of majority. Survivors who already have paid such an extreme price should not have to assign away their SBP annuity or forfeit it entirely to qualify for DIC payments that amount to less than $1,000 a month.

Paid-up SBP equity

The current 2008 effective date for 30-year paid-up SBP coverage should be moved up to Oct. 1, 2005. Those who enrolled when SBP was first signed into law will have to pay premiums for up to 36 years before being granted relief, whereas later enrollees will have a 30-year cutoff. The effective date must be changed to be fairer to the participants who have paid the greatest amount of premiums for SBP.

Concurrent receipt

MOAA is committed to securing legislation authorizing full concurrent receipt of military retired pay and VA disability compensation. The FY 2005 Defense Authorization Act restored earned retired pay for retirees rated 100-percent disabled, eliminating last year’s 10-year phase-out of the disability offset for these retirees. MOAA will seek legislation to include those retirees rated 100 percent due to being rated “unemployable” and expand accelerated payments for all qualifying retirees.

MOAA will seek new legislation to authorize combat-related special compensation to medical (Chapter 61) retirees who were prevented from serving 20 years solely because they became severely disabled in service. Servicemembers whose careers were cut short by combat and operational injuries in Iraq, Afghanistan, and earlier conflicts deserve equal treatment with those who incurred their wounds after completing 20 years of service.

Finally, MOAA will closely monitor the upcoming commission to study the VA disability system and take all possible steps to ensure a fair and unbiased process that protects the interests of disabled veterans.

USFSPA equity

MOAA will work to reform the unfair provisions of the Uniformed Services Former Spouse Protection Act (USFSPA). Eligibility for award of lifetime retired pay should be the same for former spouses as it is for servicemembers — 20 years of marriage during military service, with annual payments limited to the number of years of marriage during service for former spouses who don’t attain that. Divisible retired pay should be based on the member’s grade and years of service at the time of the divorce rather than at the time of the member’s retirement from service. More protection also is needed to ensure that state courts do not divide VA disability compensation.

COLA commitments

MOAA will work to ensure continued fulfillment of congressional intent to maintain purchasing power of retired pay COLAs. We will push for protection against COLA caps, such as those proposed as part of some Social Security reform proposals.

DIC continuation

MOAA will seek authority to lower the age at which survivors who receive DIC retain it upon remarriage. Legislation passed in 2003 authorized retention of DIC for those who remarry at age 57 or older. Continuation of benefits on remarriage at age 55 is authorized for all other federal survivor programs, including SBP. Widows receiving DIC deserve equal treatment.

WEP and GPO

MOAA seeks to repeal or reform the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) Social Security penalties for retirees and spouses who retired under the Civil Service Retirement System and certain state retirement systems. WEP reduces Social Security benefits due these members and spouses from military service or other employment. GPO reduces or eliminates the Social Security survivor annuity when the surviving spouse retired under one of the programs mentioned above.

Active and Reserve Force Issues

Budget vigilance

MOAA will monitor action on Budget Resolution, Omnibus Budget Reconciliation, Social Security reform initiatives, and other proposals to guard against discriminatory treatment of members of the uniformed services community and their families.

Benefits protection

MOAA will protect against attempts to degrade retiree and survivor benefits, including military commissaries; exchange facilities; family support services; and morale, welfare, and recreation activities, particularly with regard to the effects of base realignment and closure (BRAC) and other re-basing and redeployment initiatives.

Operations tempo and manpower

MOAA advocates improved alignment of service force structures with service missions to ease deployment rates and improve quality of life, retention, and readiness. For years, military forces have been overstressed as manpower levels have been capped below mission requirements. Subsequent sustained deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan have only intensified this problem. Current operating tempos are far more severe than in previous years and will have adverse consequences for personnel retention and readiness unless substantially relieved soon.

Congress has approved a strength increase of 20,000 for the Army for FY 2005, but it is highly uncertain whether this will ease current strains, especially if ominous retention forecasts are realized. MOAA has growing concerns that additional strength increases and more resources for recruiting, retention, training, and family support will be needed to address continuing operational stresses.

Guard/Reserve utilization

MOAA supports DoD and congressional review of operations tempo for reserve units and personnel and the long-term implications for reserve force readiness. DoD’s policies envision lengthy call-ups every five or six years. Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 400,000 troops from the National Guard and Reserve have been mobilized, with significant impacts for members, families, and employers. MOAA thinks the Guard-Reserve Commission established in the FY 2005 Defense Authorization Act must conduct a full review of the impact of these changes on the size and missions of the reserve forces.

Guard/Reserve compensation system

The reserve pay and retirement systems were developed more than a half century ago at a time when these forces truly were held in reserve. That is no longer true.

MOAA supports updating the Guard and Reserve compensation and retirement systems to better reflect the increased sacrifices imposed on these members, including changing the Guard and Reserve retirement age from 60 to 55; paying housing allowances to Guard and Reserve members activated for more than 30 days; authorizing federal benefits for extended Guard “homeland security duty” performed at the request of the president; providing tax incentives for employers of Guard and Reserve members; and improving financial, legal, and reemployment protections for activated Guard and Reserve servicemembers.

Pay-raise comparability

MOAA will work to accelerate recent progress toward restoring military pay comparability with the private sector. Executive and legislative branch leaders have worked to improve military pay in recent years, significantly narrowing a pay gap that had grown to 13.5 percent. But a 4.9-percent gap still remains as of January 2005. MOAA will seek to erase the remaining gap within three years.

Family support funding

MOAA will seek additional funds for Guard and Reserve family support centers to assist families of mobilized personnel, especially those who don’t live near military installations. MOAA will push for authorization of additional programs to help all military families cope with the many and varied stresses associated with frequent and protracted family separations.

Travel card billing

MOAA will push to fix the billing system for official travel credit cards that puts servicemembers at risk for interest payments and credit penalties when the finance center fails to make timely payments or the member is deployed on contingency operations. Travel card bills should go to the finance center or the unit, not the servicemember, and the member should be held harmless for any late federal payments.

PCS reimbursements

MOAA continues to pursue adjustment of permanent change-of-station (PCS) reimbursements to offset expenses servicemembers incur in conjunction with government-ordered relocations. Despite some modest updates a few years ago, PCS reimbursements still fall far short of member-incurred costs for military-directed moves.

GI Bill benefits

MOAA will seek to establish a 21st century Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB) for active and reserve forces. Benefits should be linked to the cost of attending a four-year public college. Senior career servicemembers who entered service between 1977 and 1984 but declined to enroll in the relatively poor educational program of that era should be offered a one-time opportunity to enroll in MGIB. Reserve GI Bill benefits, which now provide only 28 percent of active duty benefits, should be restored to the 47-percent standard set in 1984 when the MGIB was first authorized. MOAA also supports allowing transferability of MGIB benefits to family members as a career retention incentive for full-career members.

Commissary benefits

MOAA will seek to protect against privatization efforts or reductions in commissary funding support to ensure retention of this key benefit for all service beneficiaries, including active, reserve, and retired members; families; and survivors. We’ll resist consolidation of commissary and exchange facilities (which has the secondary effect of increasing prices on some commissary items) except as necessary to avoid loss of commissary facilities at BRAC locations.

Inactive duty training points

MOAA will fight to remove the current cap that bars Selected Reserve personnel from crediting more than 90 inactive duty training points a year toward retirement, even if they actually earned additional points above the cap. All points earned in a 12-month period should be credited for retirement purposes.

Education enhancements

MOAA seeks legislative and policy changes to provide education enhancements for servicemembers and families, protect DoD dependent schools, sustain Impact Aid funding for public schools attended by military children, enhance spousal education and employment initiatives, and promote in-state college tuition eligibility in the state of military assignment.

SGLI improvements

MOAA will push to increase Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) coverage, provide the first $100,000 coverage free of charge, and authorize a special death gratuity of up to two years’ pay and allowances when a servicemember is killed in the course of military operations, absent a formal declaration of war.

Additional Issues

Flag amendment

MOAA supports congressional passage of a constitutional amendment allowing Congress to prohibit desecration of the flag of the United States. MOAA strongly believes Congress should pass this amendment so it can be referred to the states, where the people can decide the issue (requires ratification by at least 38 states).

Repeal Social Security tax increase

MOAA will fight to repeal the 1993 legislation that increased the maximum amount of Social Security benefits subject to federal income tax from 50 percent to 85 percent.

Social Security and Medicare reform

MOAA will resist initiatives that impose disproportionate penalties on segments of the beneficiary or taxpayer population or fail to protect long-lived beneficiaries’ income from the ravages of inflation.

Veterans’ claims

The VA has not been able to sustain progress in promptly serving past and newly wounded veterans. Backlogged claims now far exceed the VA’s performance standard of 250,000 average pending claims a month. Congress must support increases in claims workers and provide resources for their training and administrative support.