MOAA and others fought hard to establish a Medicare-Eligible Retiree Health Care Trust Fund to mandate future funding of TRICARE For Life (TFL) for Medicare-eligible military beneficiaries. With a trust fund, a board of actuaries determines how much the government must deposit in the fund every year to ensure TFL will pay whatever bills Medicare doesn't for TRICARE-covered services.

Now the administration wants to extend trust fund coverage to younger retirees not yet eligible for Medicare. Some see this as a cure for past experience with underfunding TRICARE.

And it could be — if TRICARE were doing the job now.

But locking all retiree health care into a trust fund now would make it far harder to win much-needed TRICARE upgrades. Why? Because trust funds are considered "mandatory spending," and Congress has strict rules aimed at thwarting mandatory spending increases.

We need to fix TRICARE first — which will require more funding. Then, and only then, include all retirees' health care in the trust fund to lock in necessary future funding for the upgraded program.

Col. Steve Strobridge, USAF-Ret., director of MOAA government relations