washingtonscene
TRICARE Standard retiree inpatient co- payment of $708 a day, recognizing the cur- rent amount is more than high enough; and specify that if DoD establishes an en- rollment system for TRICARE Standard, any eligible beneficiary filing a claim must be automatically enrolled until they opt to disenroll. (This is to ensure benefi- ciaries who fail to get the word about any new Standard enrollment system don’t have their claims rejected for failure to enroll — e.g., in the event of a serious ve- hicle accident.) “Repeated proposals to raise their health care fees by up to $2,000 a year have been extremely unsettling to the mil- itary community,” said MOAA President Vice Adm. Norbert R. Ryan Jr., USN-Ret. “The Lautenberg-Rubio bill would restore a much-needed sense of stability for this core career retention incentive.”
House Leaders O
Hear Priorities MOAA highlights TRICARE and survivor issues.
n May 17, House Minority Lead- er Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer
(D-Md.), and more than a dozen other se- nior House democratic leaders met with selected military and veterans’ associa- tion leaders to address priorities for the legislative year. The House leaders highlighted their
work to fully fund VA programs and pro- tect them from budget cuts under the sequestration that will be required Jan. 1, 2013, unless Congress approves alternative deficit-reduction matters. Deployment-related needs of mili- tary families, concerns over the effects of sequestration on the defense budget,
40 MILITARY OFFICER JULY 2012
the need to improve access to mental health care providers, and the continuing lengthy delays in processing of VA dis- ability claims were among issues associa- tion leaders raised. MOAA Government Relations Director
Col. Steve Strobridge, USAF-Ret., high- lighted the importance of fair treatment of beneficiaries on TRICARE fees and protecting military families’ dwell time between deployments. On the issue of sequestration, Stro-
bridge stressed that while Hill leaders have worked to exclude VA programs from the terrible cuts that a sequester would require, they’ve extended no such protection to military TRICARE programs that cover currently serving and retired members and their families and survivors. Finally, Strobridge urged legislative leaders to remember their long-stated goal of phasing out and eliminating the deduc- tion of VA benefits from military Survivor Benefit Plan annuities. While acknowledg- ing the challenge of any program increase in these tough budget times, he asked leaders to renew and sustain their com- mitment to this important goal.
Coalition: Halt M
Sequestration Mandated defense cuts would be devastating.
OAA and its partners in The Military Coalition (TMC) wrote to every member of Congress
May 2 asking them to avoid the cata- strophic consequences the sequestration process would have on the defense budget and future national security. Without congressional action, the Jan- uary 2013 sequestration required by the Budget Control Act
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