washingtonscene

2016 Goals T

his year promises to be a sig- nificant one for military health care, as Senate and House lawmak-

ers have signaled their intent to focus on TRICARE reform. The previous 14 years of wartime sac-

MOAA’s Top 10 Goals for 2016

 Ensure any TRICARE reform sustains top- quality care  Prevent dispropor- tional TRICARE fee increases  Sustain military pay comparability with the private sector  Block erosion of com- pensation and commis- sary benefits  Protect military retirement/COLAs  Sustain wounded- warrior programs/ex- pand caregiver support  End disabled/survivor financial penalties  Credit Guard/Reserve call-ups for retirement purposes  Improve spouse and family support  Assure timely access to VA care and elimi- nate claims backlog

rifice, stress, and hardship were matched by unprecedented quality-of-life improve- ments in the first decade of the new cen- tury. But growing budget pressures and economic uncertainty have led to a series of proposals to erode pay and housing allow- ances, slash the commissary benefit, curtail military retirement, and impose significant- ly higher health care fees on beneficiaries. Sequestration — arbitrary, budget-driven

cuts to defense funding not based on nation- al security requirements — has been held off temporarily. But it threatens to return in FY 2018 and, if not addressed, will require huge defense budget cuts on top of the more than $500 billion reduction the Pentagon already has absorbed. Defense and congressional leaders have acknowledged that would be devastating to military readiness. MOAA is very concerned these severe

budget reductions dramatically increase the prospects for large and inappropriate cuts in crucial compensation programs essential to sustaining a top-quality career force. MOAA continues to believe significant changes in career incentives that form the core pillars of the all-volunteer force must be approached with considerable skepti- cism. We would heed the lessons of the past 40 years, when ill-advised pay and benefit

42 MILITARY OFFICER JANUARY 2016

Sequestration; military health care, retirement, and pay; force levels for the services; and wounded warriors and caregivers top MOAA’s 2016 legislative goals list.

cuts hurt retention and readiness and cost the country at least as much to fix as they had been projected to save. But such worries didn’t stop Congress

from significantly reducing retired pay value for future entrants while establishing new vesting benefits for those who leave service. That is instructive for us concern- ing potential health care changes in 2016. Intensifying budget scrutiny has the po- tential to affect not only military programs and benefits but also Social Security, Medi- care, federal civilian pay and retirement, COLAs, and virtually everything else the government spends money on. The remainder of this column provides a summary of key MOAA legislative objec- tives for 2016. To help fulfill these objectives, we

strongly urge you to subscribe to MOAA’s Legislative Update e-newsletter so you’ll be able to respond to our calls to action. Call (800) 234-MOAA (6622) or visit www .moaa.org/email to subscribe.

Defense Budget

Fund people and weapons A top MOAA goal is to sustain future years’ defense budgets at levels required to meet mission and readiness needs. MOAA believes maintaining military

manpower, replacing and upgrading weap- ons and equipment worn out by years of war, and treating military people fairly are not mutually exclusive.