washingtonscene
LEGISLATIVE NEWS THAT AFFECTS YOU Cap Fee Hikes
MOAA urges the House Armed Services Committee to recognize career servicemembers’ “prepaid premiums” of service and sacrifice by capping any fee increases at the annual COLA percentage.
M
OAA Government Relations Director Col. Steve Strobridge, USAF-Ret., was invited to offer
MOAA’s views at a March 16 House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Person- nel hearing on DoD’s proposal to raise TRI- CARE Prime enrollment fees by $5 a month for a family and raise retail pharmacy co- payments by $2 or $3. No changes are proposed for TRICARE
Standard or TRICARE For Life, and mili- tary disability (Chapter 61) retirees and sur- vivors would be exempt from the Prime fee increase. Copayments would be eliminated for generic medications ordered through the mail-order pharmacy system. Strobridge told the subcommittee
MOAA doesn’t advocate that fees should
never rise, but rather that DoD’s past pro- posals to raise fees $1,000 to $2,000 a year failed to recognize the very large premium military people prepay for their health care through decades of service and sacrifice. “We’re encouraged the new DoD pro- posal does a far better job of acknowledg- ing that than did the proposals of several years ago,” Strobridge said. “Our principal objection is to the DoD plan to index future TRICARE Prime fee increases to some undetermined health care index that they project will rise at 6.2 percent per year.” The chart on page 32 shows the dra- matic impact the DoD-proposed indexing would have over longer periods of time. MOAA believes strongly that, in rec- ognition of military beneficiaries’ lengthy service and sacrifice, the percentage in- crease in any year should not exceed the retired pay COLA percentage. At the hearing, Strobridge asserted
current law leaves too much about the fee-setting process to DoD’s discretion. It allowed DoD leaders to go years proposing no changes — making beneficiaries believe there wouldn’t be any — and then a new secretary of defense proposed tripling the fees, which upset beneficiaries and im- plied they hadn’t earned their health care. “We have statutory guidelines for setting
MOAA’s Col. Steve Strobridge, USAF-Ret., speaks about proposed TRI- CARE Prime enrollment fee increases at a hearing on Capitol Hill in March.
and adjusting basic pay, retired pay, survivor benefits, and most other compensation ele- ments. We believe strongly the law should specify several principles on military health care,” Strobridge told legislators.
*fact: As of 2011, COLAs have increased retired pay a cumulative 43 percent since 1995. PHOTO: STEVE BARRETT
MAY 2011 MILITARY OFFICER 31
COLA Climb Continues • Inflation rose 0.5 per- cent in February for the second month in a row and stood at plus 0.94 percent for the year as this column went to press, making it nearly certain the two-year COLA drought will end in 2012.
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