Committed to You
MOAA is a family; help is only a call or e-mail away.
By Vice Adm. Norbert R. Ryan Jr., USN-Ret.

Here at Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) headquarters, our goal every day is to make a real difference in the lives of our members, their families, and our uniformed servicemembers. We're proud to be on the leading edge of military and veterans' associations in promoting legislative and policy changes to protect and enhance the earned benefits of current and retired servicemembers and their families and survivors.

This year we're making a strong effort to obtain long-overdue relief for military survivors who now suffer an unfair reduction in their Survivor Benefit Plan annuity when they turn age 62. As one auxiliary member told me during my weekly call-in, “Admiral, when my husband was alive, he would always help me with tough issues. Now, as a widow, I'm very grateful to have MOAA fighting for me.” On the back cover of this magazine there are four postcards pre-addressed to your senators and congressional representative urging them to stand up and be counted as supporters of this initiative. Two of the postcards have no return addresses; please ask your spouse or another family member or friend to fill these out and add their support to our grassroots campaign on this issue.

We're also working hard to head off looming problems such as those developing in health care because of low payments to Medicare and TRICARE providers. These low payments are causing a growing number of providers to withdraw from Medicare and TRICARE or to decline taking new patients. We're working with The Military Coalition, the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations, and the American Medical Association, among others, to get the attention of the administration, the Department of Defense, and Congress to correct this serious and growing problem. We've placed a survey on MOAA's Web Base to help us identify areas of the country where military beneficiaries are having significant difficulty finding TRICARE providers. If that's true of your area, please help by completing the survey at www.moaa.org/legislative/tricaresurvey2003. If you don't have access to the Web, ask another MOAA member or your local library for help. The more input we get, the more specific we can be in addressing this problem.

Another way we can make a real difference is to respond rapidly and personally to your questions and problems. To their great credit, former MOAA President Lt. Gen. Mike Nelson, USAF-Ret., and our board of directors had the wisdom to create our Member Service Center that has us on the right path to deliver for you. My request this month is to use us and challenge us when you — or members of your family — need help or information. You can call us at (800) 234-MOAA (6622) or send an e-mail to msc@moaa.org. Our commitment is that we will give it 110 percent. We want to help. Please ask. We're proud to serve you.