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Issue: A Pentagon task force has recommended dramatically raising health costs for retired families by:
- Raising the $460 family TRICARE Prime enrollment fee as high as $2,090
- Raising annual $300 family TRICARE Standard fees as high as $1,270
- Establishing an annual $120 enrollment fee per person for TRICARE For Life
- Raising retail pharmacy copays for all from $3 generic/$9 brand /$22 non-formulary to $15/$25/$45.
Background: DoD asserts that rising health care costs are competing with weapons programs. The Joint Chiefs have endorsed TRICARE fee increases because the choice was forced on them by their political leaders, who want the increases to bring military beneficiary costs more in line with civilian practices.
Comparison with corporate practices is inappropriate. Exceptional military medical and retirement benefits are the primary offsets for enduring decades of extraordinarily arduous service conditions. Military retirees pay huge "up front" health premiums through 20-30 years of service and sacrifice. Recruiting problems show few Americans are willing to pay that heavy premium for that benefit.
Proposed increases are grossly out of line with benefit levels enacted by Congress. Proposed increases would far outstrip annual retired pay increases and greatly erode retired compensation value. Congress knew enacting TRICARE For Life wouldn't be cheap. Don't penalize retirees for Congress' action.
Penalizing those who serve arduous 20- to 30-year military careers is inconsistent with past Congressional action. For four years, Congress rejected far smaller VA fee increases for nondisabled veterans who had served as few as two years. Quadrupling fees for those who served 20-30 years in uniform would be even more inappropriate.
The Nation's obligation to military retirees exceeds corporate obligations. The government has a moral and practical reciprocal obligation to provide benefits commensurate with the extraordinary commitments it requires from career servicemembers. Mid-career military losses can't be replaced like civilians can.
Eroding benefits for career service can only undermine long-term retention and readiness. Today's troops are very conscious of Congress' actions concerning their future benefits. MOAA surveys show 95% of active members oppose such increases. Reducing military retirement benefits would be especially ill-advised when recruiting is already a problem and an overstressed force is at increasing retention risk.
The priority should be fixing TRICARE. Doctors say TRICARE is one of the lowest-paying plans in the country and imposes far more administrative requirements than other plans. Beneficiaries at many locations have difficulty finding providers willing to take them. See reverse for a list of needed fixes.
The country can afford to pay for both weapons and military health care. Today's defense budget (in wartime) represents only about 4% of GDP -- far lower than the 5.7% peacetime-year average since World War II. The world's richest country doesn't need to make military retirees pay for weapons.
The government has many options to contain costs without penalizing beneficiaries. See attachment 1 for a list of cost-saving options.
MOAA Position: The government has many options to contain costs without penalizing beneficiaries. See a list of potential cost-saving options. View the 2007 MOAA brief to Senate and House staffers. MOAA believes TRICARE fees should not rise in any year by a percentage that exceeds the percentage growth in their military compensation.
Key Bills/Status: Representative Chet Edwards (D-TX 17th) and Walter Jones (R-NC 3rd) have introduced The Military Retirees Health Care Protection Act, H.R. 579, a bill that would establish the principle that it's Congress's responsibility, not the Pentagon's, to establish when and by how much military health fees will be increased.
Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE) have introduced S. 604, a bipartisan bill similar to H.R. 579 that would bar the Pentagon from imposing large TRICARE fee increases.