washington scene
Since the TFL-driven spurt from 2002-03, the rate of growth in military health care costs has declined pretty steadily. In fact, DoD has taken advantage of that by reallocating almost $3 billion in unused health care funding to other DoD programs over the past three years.
For FY 2012, DoD health care costs grew only about 0.4 percent compared to FY 2011.
And the rate will dampen further in coming years, as a result of:
■ pharmacy copayment increases taking effect this year;
■ requirements for Medicare-eligibles to try mail-order or military pharmacies to refill maintenance medications for at least a year; and
■ the recently announced phase-out of TRICARE Prime for retirees who don’t live near military medical facilities.
We’re under no illusions the unreasoning zombies pressing attacks on your health care will be concerned about these facts — or anything else besides coming after you.
But you should be concerned.
Because it’s you taking to your legislators these truths — the truths unthinking zombies won’t recognize — that will convince Congress you, your family, and other military beneficiaries aren’t breaking the Pentagon bank.
DoD Proposes Pay Cap
Capping military pay raises sends the wrong message.
In February, outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said the FY 2014 defense budget will propose capping the 2014 military pay raise at 1 percent, rather than the 1.8 percent needed to match the average American’s.
He said the Joint Chiefs of Staff and their senior enlisted advisors agree.
Well, MOAA doesn’t.
We worked hard to win a 2004 law change tying military raises to private-sector pay growth. When past administrations and Congresses started capping military raises below that standard, they didn’t stop until they killed retention. We need to learn from that experience, not repeat it.
America is still at war and shouldn’t be pushing more financial penalties on those who’ve already borne 100 percent of national wartime sacrifice for more than a decade. Our troops deserve at least the same 1.8-percent raise experienced by the average American.
Mental Health Progress Lacking
Same problems continue.
The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee had its first hearings of the 113th Congress in February, but from the testimony of VA officials, not much has changed in the past two years.
One mental health professional testified that, before the wars, the suicide rate was half the level it is today. Suicide rates have doubled in the past 12 years for males 18 to 34 years old. “What [the] VA is doing is not working, and that is unacceptable,” he said.
“Perhaps more troubling is the report’s finding that demographic characteristics of veterans who die by suicide are similar among those who access VA care and those who don’t — raising serious questions about the efficacy of the VA’s mental health care and suicide-prevention services,” said Committee Chair Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.).
Committee members and witnesses voiced frustration over the VA’s lack of tangible progress even after budget increases and multiple hearings in recent years.
APRIL 2013 MILITARY OFFICER 33
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