fromthepresident Keeping Faith
Retention and readiness suffer when leaders fail to mirror servicemembers’ commitment. As military careers demand more from troops and their families, DoD must reciprocate.
I
never used to get headaches. But when I hear arguments for rais- ing military retiree health care fees, I feel a headache coming on. MOAA is dedicated to a strong national
defense, and we appreciate Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ efforts to use DoD’s resources more efficiently. But it troubles me the Pentagon’s knee-jerk reaction has been to declare military health care costs (especially retiree health care costs) are eating DoD alive and to seek significant hikes in beneficiary fees before doing much to clean up its own medical house. Back in 2006, MOAA offered Congress
and DoD a list of ways to achieve health care savings without penalizing beneficia- ries. Today, the Pentagon has pursued few — most of those directed by Congress. Is it realistic to expect retiree health care
fees will never be raised? No. But the first step shouldn’t be a budget objective to shift an arbitrary dollar figure into retiree fees. It must be acknowledgement that those who serve a career in uniform pay an enormous premium, up-front and in-kind, through de- cades of arduous service and sacrifice. Thanks to grassroots input from MOAA
members and others, Congress rejected DoD-proposed fee hikes for the last three years of the previous administration. Dur- ing its first two years, the current adminis- tration hasn’t proposed any fee hikes, but that seems likely to change for FY 2011. MOAA is more than willing to work
with DoD and Congress to find alternative, mutually beneficial ways to save money.
1 4 MI L I T A R Y O F F I C E R O C TO B E R 2 0 1 0
We’re encouraged TRICARE leaders recently have been receptive to MOAA proposals for a joint effort to promote use of TRICARE’s home- delivery pharmacy system — which could save money for both beneficiaries and DoD. Pursuing this four years ago could have saved the Penta- gon billions by now. The second step should
be agreement on principles governing beneficiary health care fees — one of which should be that the percentage fee hike in any year shouldn’t exceed the retiree COLA. Defense leaders and others often cite
DoD health care cost increases since 2000 — conveniently overlooking that military beneficiaries over age 65 had been kicked out of military health care coverage then. A large share of cost growth since then re- flects restoration of eligibility Congress rec- ognized was taken away improperly. MOAA won’t accept 2000 as a point of comparison. The debate on this crucial issue likely
will come to a head next year. We will keep you informed, and when the time comes we hope members will demonstrate once again why MOAA is One Powerful Voice®.
— Vice Adm. Norb Ryan Jr., USN-Ret. PHOTO: STEVE BARRETT
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