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LEGISLATIVE NEWS THAT AFFECTS YOU Reform or Fees?
The congressional Armed Services committees are ramping up discussions on defense health care reform proposals, but the Pentagon plan is light on reform specifics and heavy on fee hikes.
M
OAA Government Relations Director Col. Steve Strobridge, USAF (Ret), told a House Armed
Services Military Personnel Subcommittee panel March 17 that in the year of TRI- CARE reform, DoD’s plan contains only vague statements on needed program im- provements and focuses mainly on adding new beneficiary fees and raising a range of others, especially for the retired community. He noted the proposed fee schedules
were designed to push more care to military hospitals and clinics, which have been the primary sources of ac- cess problems. “Our preference
would be to ensure access is improved in the [military treat- ment facilities] before implementing a fee structure intended to drive more care there,” Strobridge told panelists. He also expressed
MOAA’s hope the system would estab- lish positive “car- rots” to incentivize beneficiary choices rather than financial penalty “sticks.” “Particularly for re- tirees, we believe the
$12 $10 $8 $6
$4 $2 $0
*Projected 10.8 11 10.9 8.5 7.4 7 6.6
proposed fee increases — in the range of $500 to $1,200 a year — are disproportion- al,” Strobridge said. “Further, the incentives seem structured as different-sized sticks, with the biggest sticks proposed for the TRICARE Standard group that, ironically, costs DoD the least money.” Retirees in TRICARE Prime who use military treatment facilities, as DoD wants, would see a 24-percent enrollment fee increase, plus other increases in cost- shares and pharmacy copayments.
DoD TFL Costs Spiraling — Downward
Despite cries of health care “eating the DoD budget alive,” TRICARE For Life (TFL) costs have fallen by almost 40 percent over the past six years.
Take Action Visit
http://capwiz.com/ moaa/home to send your legislators a MOAA- suggested message on key issues affecting the military community.
FY10 FY11
FY12 FY13 FY14 FY15 FY16* Source: DoD reports to Congress, FY 2016 president’s budget
MAY 2016 MILITARY OFFICER 29
TFL Contribution billions
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