washingtonscene
LEGISLATIVE NEWS THAT AFFECTS YOU
Prevent the Medicare/TRICARE
Fee Backtrack
The FY 2012 defense budget dramatically scaled back previous proposals to double or triple TRICARE fees for retirees under age 65, but MOAA objects to DoD’s proposed index for future increases.
I
n 2007 and 2008, Defense Secre- tary Robert Gates proposed major TRI- CARE fee increases that would have:
raised annual TRICARE Prime enroll- ment fees from the current $460 to as much as $1,000 a year or more; raised the TRICARE Standard deductible from $300 to as much as $1,100 or more and added a new Standard enrollment fee; introduced means-testing by basing fee levels on retiree income; and raised TRICARE retail pharmacy copay- ments from $3/$9/$22 for generics/brand/ nonformulary medications to $15/$25/$45. MOAA and The Military Coalition
strongly objected to those increases as grossly out of line with the “up-front” premiums of service and sacrifi ce already contributed by retired military families. Congress agreed with us and rejected the proposed hikes. For the fi rst two years of the Obama
administration, Gates proposed no TRI- CARE fee hikes, but in recent months he had said the FY 2012 budget would pro- pose “modest” TRICARE fee increases for “working-age retirees.” MOAA was among those who an- ticipated that meant a renewed eff ort to implement hikes comparable to those he proposed previously. But when Under Secretary of Defense
for Personnel and Readiness Dr. Cliff ord L. Stanley called a meeting Feb. 14 with MOAA President Vice Adm. Norb Ryan Jr., USN- Ret., and other association leaders to outline
the TRICARE fee proposals included in the new FY 2012 defense budget, the bottom line of his briefi ng was, “We listened.” The new plan entails no changes for TRICARE Standard or TRICARE For Life and no means-testing of fees. It pro- poses what Stanley described as “modest, gradual” changes in TRICARE Prime en- rollment fees and would exempt military disability (Chapter 61) retirees and survi- vors from those changes. Specifi cally, the plan calls for:
raising the 2012 Prime enrollment fees by 13 percent — from $230 (individual)/$460 (family) a year to $260 (individual)/$520 (family) a year (survivor and Chapter 61 re- tiree fees would remain at current rates); indexing those fees in 2013 and beyond to a medical infl ation index (based on a measure of health care cost growth pro- jected to rise at 6.2 percent a year); and changing TRICARE Pharmacy copay- ments as follows (changes in parentheses):
Generic
Retail Mail Order $5 (+$2) Zero (-$3)
Brand Name $12 (+$3) $9 (no change) Nonformulary $25 (+$3) $25 (+$3)
While some proposals still warrant ad-
justment, the new plan makes a better eff ort to recognize that career military people prepay a large price for their lifetime health care coverage up front — through decades of service and sacrifi ce. MOAA strongly supports the proposed elimination of copayments for use of ge-
*online: Visit
http://capwiz.com/moaa/home to view MOAA’s current legislative alerts. APRIL 2011 MILITARY OFFICER 31
Payment Cut Unless current law is changed, Medicare and TRICARE pay- ments to doctors will be cut 28 percent as of Jan. 1, 2012 — jeopardizing health care access for elderly and mili- tary pa- tients. Click here to take action by sending a message to your legislators today!
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