Advocacy
Study Says SBP Compares Well to Public and Private Plans, Irking Widows
A positive RAND report on the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) might not comfort the 64,000 surviving spouses who continue to see their SBP cut or eliminated.
Tom Philpott has covered the military for more than 30 years. His syndicated column, Military Update, reaches 2 million readers and focuses on breaking news affecting pay, benefits, and the lifestyle of service people. He is a contributing editor with Military Officer, and his freelance articles have appeared in numerous magazines including The New Yorker, Washingtonian, Readers' Digest, and Kiplinger's. Philpott served a tour in the U.S. Coast Guard as an information officer.
A positive RAND report on the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) might not comfort the 64,000 surviving spouses who continue to see their SBP cut or eliminated.
Congress ordered the PDBR established after evidence surfaced that service branches had been low-balling disability ratings, but so far only 19,000 veterans have applied from a pool of 71,000 known to be eligible for at least a disability rating review.
fter some start-up challenges, here's what servicemembers like about the new system.
Concerned Veterans for America, a group of policy advocates funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, who want to shrink the size of federal bureaucracies including the Department of Veterans Affairs, appears to have won a major victory with President Trump’s firing of Dr. David Shulkin as VA secretary.