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LEGISLATIVE NEWS THAT AFFECTS YOU


Late-breaking News


Reform Coming


The House Armed Services Committee proposes a major military health care overhaul while grandfathering the currently serving and retired community from most TRICARE fee hikes.


A


n advance copy of the “chair- man’s markup” of the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization


Bill indicates House Armed Services Com- mittee Chair Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) has big changes in mind for the military health care system. On the TRICARE fee front, his proposal


would apply a new fee structure for those entering service beginning in 2018 but would grandfather currently serving and retired military personnel and their fami- lies against the large fee hikes proposed in DoD’s FY 2016 defense budget. On the latter count, the draft proposes no changes for TRICARE For Life or TRICARE Prime. Like DoD’s proposal, Thornberry’s envisions changing the cur- rent TRICARE Standard program to a preferred-provider system with flat-dollar copayments for most doctor visits. Currently retired servicemembers and their families wishing to stay in this updated version of Standard (which the Armed Services Committee would call TRICARE Preferred) would need to enroll annually and would pay a yearly enroll- ment fee of $100/$200 (individual/fam- ily) starting in 2020, provided DoD meets certain metrics for improvement of health care access and other quality measures. The most dramatic change would in-


volve placing all military treatment facili- ties under the direction of the Defense Health Agency, effective Oct. 1, 2018, for purposes of unified policy, administra-


tion, and budgeting. This fits with MOAA’s view that having three separate systems administered by separate services is both inefficient and costly. The proposal includes a wide variety of


requirements for extended hours at mili- tary facilities for urgent care; adoption of metrics for quality care, wait times, and provider-to-beneficiary ratios; and more. The proposal also would authorize mil- itary facilities to sell hearing aids at cost to family members of retirees. On non-health care matters, the chair-


man’s bill would: extend until Oct. 1, 2018, the Special Survivor Indemnity Allowance payable to military survivors affected by the deduction of VA survivor benefits from their Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) annuities. (This would be a one-year extension at the FY 2017 $310 monthly rate.) MOAA is grateful for the extension and will work to seek a longer extension and rate increase as the defense bill progresses through Congress; and change the SBP calculation for survi- vors of guardmembers and reservists who die on inactive duty for training (IADT) to the same formula used for active duty deaths. (IADT survivors currently have lower SBP benefits.) Overall, MOAA is pleased Thornberry’s


proposals align with the principles we outlined in testimony before Congress earlier this year. “Bill Rejects Pay, Force Cuts” (see next page) outlines additional proposed changes.


JUNE 2016 MILITARY OFFICER 33


On April 27, the House Armed Services Committee approved the defense bill and added the following provisions: a) for future divorces, base the divisible retired pay for a former spouse on the servicemember’s grade and years of service at the time of divorce and b) make both men and women subject to registration for the draft at age 18.


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