washingtonscene Defense Budget
Fully fund people and weapons needs A top goal is to sustain future years’ defense budgets at levels required to meet mission and readiness needs. MOAA believes strongly main- taining military manpower, replacing and upgrading weapons and equip- ment worn out by years of war, and treating military people fairly must not be mutually exclusive. Even as defense budgets come under increasing scrutiny, a nation still at war must meet funding needs for both people and weapons, rather than sacrificing one for the other. MOAA is concerned budget-driv-
en force cuts will impose even great- er deployment burdens on remaining troops and their families and pose inappropriate risks for the nation’s ability to respond to future contingencies. To the extent force cuts require sepa-
Fighting for MOAA's interests are, from left, Karen Golden; Col. Bob Norton, USA-Ret.; Matt Murphy; Col. Phil Odom, USAF-Ret.; Cmdr. René Campos, USN-Ret.; MOAA President Vice Adm. Norbert R. Ryan Jr., USN- Ret.; Director of Government Relations Col. Steve Strobridge, USAF-Ret.; Col. Mike Hayden, USAF-Ret.; Capt. Kathy Beasley, USN-Ret.; and Bret Shea.
ration of members with lengthy service, MOAA supports reinstatement of early re- tirement authority and enhanced voluntary separation incentives to recognize these members’ extended service and sacrifice.
Health Care Issues
Reverse Medicare/ TRICARE payment cuts Medicare and TRICARE (whose pay- ment levels are tied to Medicare’s by law) already pay less than most commercial insurance plans, and further payment cuts will only deter more providers from accepting military beneficiaries. Under current law, Medicare and TRICARE pay- ments will be reduced 27.4 percent as of January 2012. That would dramatically undermine military health care access, and it can’t be allowed to happen.
PHOTO: STEVE BARRETT
Bar disproportional TRICARE fee hikes MOAA insists 1) a unique military health care plan is an essential offset to the unique conditions entailed in a military career; 2) any fee-adjustment formula must recognize military beneficiaries prepay very large pre- miums for their lifetime coverage through decades of service and sacrifice; and 3) the country must have a higher obligation to them than corporate employers demon- strate for their active and retired employees. To that end, any percentage increase in military beneficiaries’ health care fees in any year should not exceed the percentage increase in their military compensation. MOAA will resist proposals to make military health care programs more like civilian programs, such as proposals to dra- matically increase pharmacy copayments, bar retirees from participation in TRI- CARE Prime, and/or add thousands of dol- lars a year to military beneficiaries’ costs.
JANUARY 2012 MILITARY OFFICER 41
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