washingtonscene TRICARE Young Adult Premium Rate Increases
2015 Annual Premium
TRICARE Prime
TRICARE Standard
$2,496 $2,172
2016 Annual Premium
$3,672 $2,736
is they are paying much more than their civilian counterparts. MOAA will be seeking ways to ease this
increasingly unfair cost burden and will continue to focus on ensuring any TRI- CARE reform sustains top-quality care. Any fee-adjustment formula must recog- nize that military beneficiaries prepay very large premiums for their lifetime coverage through decades of service and sacrifice.
MOAA Vets Help
Commission Commission on Care works to improve veterans’ health care.
C
mdr. René Campos, USN (Ret), a MOAA deputy director of Govern- ment Relations, met with the Com-
mission on Care to share the views and experiences of MOAA members using VA medical facilities in their communities. In May 2014, reports of waiting-list manipulation at VA facilities led MOAA to urge the president and Congress to estab- lish a high-level commission to examine VA health care delivery issues for the 21st century. This suggestion led to the passage of the Veterans Access, Choice, and Ac- countability Act of 2014 and the establish- ment of the Commission on Care. The commission is charged with pro-
viding recommendations to Congress on how best to organize the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), locate health care
40 MILITARY OFFICER MARCH 2016
Annual Change ($)
+$1,176 +$564
Change (%) +47%
+26%
resources, and deliver care to veterans over the next 20 years. In November 2015, then-MOAA Presi-
dent Vice Adm. Norbert R. Ryan Jr., USN (Ret), sent a letter urging the commission to hear from veterans and their families about their needs and concerns, and the commission has done just that. Campos provided commissioners recent
testimonials from MOAA members who use the VA health care system. Most veterans are very satisfied with the quality of health care they receive, once they’re able to ac- cess the system. A wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veteran
told MOAA how helpful his VA medical center was in getting disability benefits and the health care he needed to ease his fam- ily’s transition out of the military. But MOAA member input also highlight- ed the confusing and inconsistent policies, procedures, and bureaucratic barriers ben- eficiaries face in trying to access that care. “The vets on the bottom of this ava- lanche of bureaucratic insanity are worse off than ever in their access to timely health care,” wrote an 80-year-old female Vietnam veteran describing her frustra- tion with the Choice Program. Any reform of VHA ultimately must im-
prove access and provide high-quality and comprehensive care. “The system must be designed to sup- port and engage not only the veteran but also their caregivers and family members,” Campos said. “And it must be simple and easy to navigate.”
Annual
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