washingtonscene
Administration officers to transfer ben- efits to military family members. Wounded warriors: Strobridge cited the
need to provide three years of active duty- level TRICARE coverage for disability retir- ees, stronger oversight of DoD/VA seamless transition efforts, and added protections for caregivers of wounded warriors. At the House hearing, Gold Star Wives
representatives provided testimony on the SBP/Dependency Indemnity Compensa- tion issue. “An 85-year-old widow shouldn’t have to start dating and remarry to have SBP restored,” said Suzanne Stark. “It’s dis- couraging to hear, year after year, ‘We sup- port you in principle, but just can’t find the money,’ ” added Margaret McCloud. House Subcommittee Chair Susan Davis
(D-Calif.) asked how the witnesses would prioritize needs if the subcommittee man- aged to identify some specific amount of qualifying offsets. Strobridge said the TMC would have
to confer, but in the past, the coalition has worked successfully with the subcommittee to craft appropriate improvements.
Returning
Budget Threats
Benefits are put in crosshairs.
A
t a Feb. 23 hearing, the Senate
Budget Committee offered a sober- ing foretaste of challenges for the
military community. While acknowledging “national security must always be our top priority,” Committee Chair Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) observed, “Our nation is deep in debt. ... We’re going to have a debt three times the size we had after World War II. … Nobody believes that’s sustainable. “Last year, 68 percent of the new debt financing came from abroad. China is now the biggest funder of the United States, [and] we have had the Chinese warn us
publicly and privately that they are in- creasingly reluctant to finance this debt. “And so on this committee,” Conrad con-
cluded, “everything has to be on the table. That’s clearly the charge being given to the debt commission the president has formed.” Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) identified
military personnel costs as a key focus, “Specifically the cost of personnel post- service … [and] things we should be look- ing at to try to bring those costs under control, especially in the area[s] of health care … [and] retirement benefits.” Dr. Cindy Williams, a Massachusetts
Institute of Technology research scientist and former assistant director of national security with the CBO, said defense health costs “shot up by a factor of 2 1/2 between 1999 and 2010 … because of expansion of benefits and [because the military] holds to a fee structure that makes [care] much cheaper for retirees than other options available to them.” She noted TRICARE For Life (TFL)
costs the Pentagon $11 billion a year, and the CBO projects TFL costs will double by 2028. Costs could be reduced substantially, she said, “if the department adopted a de- liberate policy to retain fewer servicemem- bers until they become eligible to retire. Reducing the benefit itself is another policy choice, [as is] bringing … the cost sharing … for military retirees closer to what people pay in the private sector.” “Health care accounts in every sector of
our society are running amok,” Conrad ob- served. “It’s true in Medicare. It’s true in the private sector. And it’s true in the military.” “I myself believe in copays,” he said.
“Where you don’t have copays, you have overutilization. … As soon as you mention it [for the military], it’s controversial. People say, ‘You are creating a disincentive for peo- ple to join the military.’ This is going to have to be throughout society. … We can’t allow this to continue to spiral out of control.” The debt crisis the country faces is, indeed, far greater than in the past. But
MAY 2 0 1 0 MI L I T A R Y O F F I C E R 3 7
New Mexico Supports Military
■ New Mexico is the latest state to act to smooth dif- ficult school transitions for military children because of permanent-change-of- station moves. There are 22 states that have not yet acted.
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