washington scene
Would the proposed enrollment-fee and deductible increases apply to active duty family members who use TRICARE Standard, TRICARE Prime Remote, or TRICARE Young Adult?
Most would apply only to retired beneficiaries and survivors and their families. However, active duty family members will be subject to the new pharmacy copayments for any medications obtained outside military pharmacies.
What about survivors whose sponsors didn’t die on active duty? How would they be treated under the fee proposals and the retired-pay-based tiering system?
Pentagon leaders say survivors of service members who died after leaving active duty would be subject to the new fee increases. Their income tier would be based on their gross Survivor Benefit Plan amount before any deduction for taxes or VA offset.
Does the proposal envision changing the $3,000 annual catastrophic cap on out-of-pocket expenses?
Yes. It would increase the cap each year by an index of health care inflation (previously estimated by DoD at about 6.2 percent a year). Enrollment fees wouldn’t count toward the cap.
How would retirees who have VA disability offsets or who are dividing retired pay with a former spouse be treated under retired-pay-based fee tiers? Would they only count the portion of retired pay the retiree actually receives?
Defense officials say the fee tier would be based on the “gross pay” reflected on a retiree’s Defense Finance and Accounting Service pay statement before any VA offset or former spouse deduction. This is another reason MOAA opposes any health care means testing.
How can we stop these proposed fees?
Use MOAA’s website
www.moaa.org/contactcongress to send your legislators the latest MOAA-suggested message, and ask your friends and relatives to do the same. We are going to need maximum grassroots effort to successfully challenge these drastic proposals.
What is MOAA doing to oppose these unfair fee hikes?
We’re mobilizing our membership and already have generated more than 130,000 messages to legislators on Capitol Hill. MOAA is scheduled to testify before Congress on this topic March 6, and MOAA leaders have made numerous visits to Hill leaders to highlight our opposition to the proposals. In April, we’ll bring our state council and chapter leaders to Washington, D.C., to “storm the Hill” on this issue.
Pennsylvania Helps Military Children
40 states now are participating.
Pennsylvania became the 40th state to sign the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children Feb. 3. Participating states follow common guidelines to resolve hurdles faced by children of military families when they move between schools of different states. Issues include class placement, records transfer, immunization requirements, graduation requirements, exit testing, and extra-curricular opportunities, among others.
*online: Send a message to your legislators via
www.moaa.org/contactcongress.
APRIL 2012 MILITARY OFFICER 39
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