washingtonscene The Real
camel’s nose. H
ouse Armed Services Commit- tee Chair Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) is taking some heat for
his defense bill provision that would ac- cept a modest TRICARE fee increase for some retirees in FY 2012. But that’s a bad rap. What he’s really doing is exactly what
MOAA has urged for years — putting some principles in the law to help protect mili- tary beneficiaries from the much more severe budget-driven TRICARE cuts that are sure to come in the years ahead. Some rail against the proposed $5-a-
month TRICARE Prime enrollment fee increase as the “camel’s nose under the tent.” They seem to think by opposing any increase we can “control the camels.” In that context, there’s a whole herd of cam- els coming, whether we like it or not. But MOAA thinks that’s the wrong metaphor. The more relevant comparison is to the Mississippi River flood. It’s not a matter of negotiating to stop the flood or to stop the first inch of the flood to prevent the rest from coming. It’s a matter of building a de- fense to try to limit the damage when the truly big water comes. Once the heavy rains hit the Midwest
(i.e., now that we’ve built up such a hor- rendous national debt and the country and Congress are in an ever-intensifying budget-cutting mood), the flood is coming to the lower river valley and delta whether we like it or not. You can rail against it, but that’s not going to stop the rising river. What MOAA is trying hard to do is build
at least some kind of levee where none now exists and recognize we’re going to have to
TRICARE Threat The danger is the flood, not the
accept a little spillage to provide the best protection we can to the most people. From that perspective, there’s absolute- ly nothing in current law to provide any limiting guidelines on adjusting TRICARE fees. That leaves us at the mercy of budget pressures every year, and those pressures are building to levels that simply will not be resistible without some additional life- line. So we must get something in law we can point to as a reason to recognize mili- tary health care is a special case. That’s why we believe it’s so important to support the House Armed Services Com- mittee’s proposal to recognize in law that career servicemembers pay very large, up-front premiums for their health care in retirement through decades of service and sacrifice, and this must be considered in as- sessing their cash fees. Based on that prem- ise, the committee would impose a statutory limit that TRICARE fees can’t rise in any future year by a percentage that exceeds the percentage growth in military retired pay. If we’re successful in getting those provi- sions in law, will that guarantee we won’t get swamped by further changes a few years downstream, when the whole country is facing draconian cuts across the board? No. But it has a whole lot better chance of
having a positive effect than just hollering “we oppose any rise in the water” or “we have to oppose the first inch in the rise or it will just keep going up.” To us, such a stance ignores the reality of the current situation and fails to recognize how much worse the budget situation is going to get — very soon. MOAA is about taking constructive ac- tion to build a levee against the flood, not just hollering against the rising river. Doing nothing for another year only puts the military community at ever-greater risk. For his leadership efforts to protect the military community against that ris- ing risk, McKeon deserves our gratitude, not our attitude.
JULY 2011 MILITARY OFFICER 33
Rep. Buck McKeon
(R-Calif.)
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