Reserve personnel, therefore be it Resolved, that the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) monitor: • proposed changes to uniformed service force levels and structure; and • proposed changes in the retirement system to assess their potential impact on the retirement system’s utility as a force management tool and the potential impact of such changes on current and future active, Reserve, National Guard, and retired servicemembers and their families; and be it further Resolved, that MOAA direct its efforts toward • ensuring no changes are enacted that would jeopardize the current and future maintenance of a capable and high-quality career total force (active duty, National Guard, and Reserve); and • opposing a base realignment and closure-like legislative process for retirement commission recommendations that short-circuits full congressional scrutiny on a key career incentive that is crucial to retention and readiness; and • ensuring such changes as may be enacted do not break previous commitments, whether they be moral or contractual, to members of the uniformed services and their families; and • completely eliminating the veterans’ disability compensation offset to uniformed service retired pay.
• Resolution No. 7 — Budget Pressures and COLAs to Uniformed Services Retired Pay Whereas, the growing national debt poses a serious burden to current taxpayers and future generations, and Whereas, pressures continue to reduce government spending, particularly in the area of so-called “entitlement” programs, and Whereas, retirement system changes already enacted over the past three decades have generated substantial monetary savings to the government, and Whereas, the value of uniformed services retired pay already has been depressed by years of caps on active duty pay growth, and Whereas, proposals aimed at curtailing entitlement spending have threatened to impose on retired members of the uniformed services and their survivors an even further disproportionate share of the deficit reduction burden, and Whereas, our government has a special employer’s responsibility to those who served an arduous career in uniform, as well as to those who still serve with the full expectation that the value of retired pay will be maintained in the future, and Whereas, eliminating or reducing COLAs or applying means tests to COLAs on earned service retired pay would constitute a grievous inequity and breach of faith by our government, therefore be it Resolved, that the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) support the principle of full COLAs and that the retirement system under which a servicemember serves and retires is a good faith contract, and its effective value to each individual retired member should not be diminished for any reason, and be it further Resolved, that MOAA support efforts to ensure responsible budgets and federal spending levels while working to ensure that those who have served the U.S. as career members of its uniformed services are not singled out to bear a disproportionate share of the burden, and be it further Resolved, that any changes to the inflation-based COLA process, including changes to the consumer price index, should be based on an objective, statistically reproducible methodology and not be subjected to arbitrary legislative mechanisms or the subjective judgments of politically appointed oversight boards.
• Resolution No. 8 — Health Care Whereas, with enactment of TRICARE For Life (TFL) and the TRICARE Senior Pharmacy (TSRx) programs, Congress has acknowledged the nation’s long- standing promises to provide defense-sponsored health care for life as part of a lifetime package of incentives for those who endure the extraordinary demands and sacrifices inherent in careers in uniform, and Whereas, Congress’ refusal to require an enrollment fee for TFL/TSRx, as well as for TRICARE Standard, acknowledges that eligible members’ decades of service and sacrifice already constitute a very heavy prepaid premium for such care in retirement, and Whereas, uniformed services members and retirees have never equivocated when called upon to protect this nation’s interests and have earned the access to a full range of quality health care, and Whereas, guardmembers and reservists are a more mobilized and operational force since the end of the Cold War, and their medical readiness affects military readiness, and Whereas, guardmembers and reservists subject to frequent mobilization require and deserve continuity of health care coverage for themselves and their families to maintain readiness, including an option for subsidized continuation of civilian-employer family coverage when mobilized, and Whereas, beneficiaries under 65 who rely on TRICARE Standard increasingly are experiencing difficulty in finding a civilian provider who will participate in TRICARE because of low reimbursement rates and frustrating administrative requirements, and Whereas, some beneficiaries eligible for TFL experience great difficulty in finding physicians who will accept Medicare assignment, and Whereas, military members, retirees, and survivors are not eligible for pretax payment of health care premiums, as are most civilian employees, and
Whereas, DoD has proposed large and disproportional increases in TRICARE Prime, TRICARE Standard, and TFL enrollment fees, deductibles, and pharmacy copayments, and Whereas, defense and service leaders have declined to pursue multiple study recommendations for military health system reform and beneficiary-centric pharmacy initiatives that would save hundreds of millions of dollars annually, and Whereas, Congress has repeatedly rejected increases in fees for nondisabled veterans who served as few as two years in uniform, and Whereas, national health care reform legislation raises some degree of potential for unintended consequences for uniformed services beneficiaries in the future, and Whereas, the current statutory formula that necessitates annual legislative changes to avoid large annual cuts in provider payment rates for Medicare and TRICARE has been acknowledged by all government officials as inappropriate and counterproductive, therefore be it Resolved, that the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) support a comprehensive health care benefit for all eligible uniformed services beneficiaries — active duty, National Guard and Reserve, and retired, as well as eligible family members and survivors — and be it further Resolved, that MOAA continue to press for full funding of the Defense Health Program to ensure all beneficiaries have access to military treatment facilities and contracted civilian health care services that are authorized under TRICARE, and be it further Resolved, that MOAA will continue seeking to ensure that implementation of national health care reform legislation does not adversely affect the unique uniformed services and VA health benefits, and that uniformed services and VA beneficiaries are not subjected to taxation of those benefits, and be it further Resolved, that MOAA continue to work aggressively to promote initiatives to improve provider participation in TRICARE and Medicare by establishing a more appropriate statutory formula for determining provider reimbursement rates, facilitating TRICARE claims processing, reducing administrative impediments for providers and beneficiaries, and establishing an aggressive TRICARE Standard provider education program, and be it further Resolved, that MOAA expend every effort to ensure DoD pursues all reasonable efforts to reduce military health care costs before imposing fee increases on military beneficiaries, and be it further Resolved, that MOAA will seek to establish statutory acknowledgement that retirement and health care benefits are the primary offset to the extraordinary demands and sacrifices inherent in a military career and that such sacrifices constitute an up-front, in-kind premium far greater than those paid by any civilian, and be it further Resolved, that MOAA shall seek to ensure that, if any increases in existing military health care fees are to be considered, the percentage increase in any year shall not exceed the percentage increase in beneficiaries’ military compensation, and be it further Resolved, that MOAA oppose establishment of any enrollment fee for TFL or TRICARE Standard, and be it further Resolved, that MOAA support statutory changes to authorize active and retired uniformed services taxpayers to exempt their health, dental, and long term care insurance premium payments from taxable income, and be it further Resolved, that MOAA support authorization for employers of reservists to pay their TRICARE Reserve Select premiums as a workplace recruitment and retention incentive.
• Resolution No. 9 — Survivor Benefit Programs Whereas, Congress has enacted laws to provide for the future security of survivors of members of the uniformed services, and Whereas, Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) paid by the VA to survivors of servicemembers who die of service-connected causes offsets, dollar for dollar, Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) annuities paid for by retired servicemembers, and Whereas, recent statutory establishment of a small allowance for some SBP/ DIC survivors falls far short of needed corrective action, and Whereas, DIC survivors suffer discrimination in that their DIC payments are terminated if they remarry before age 57 (versus age 55 for all other federal survivor programs), therefore be it Resolved, that the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) support legislation to reduce SBP/DIC survivors’ loss and repeal the unfair dollar-for- dollar reduction of SBP benefits by DIC entitlements for all SBP/DIC survivors, and be it further Resolved, that MOAA support legislation to reduce the age of non-revocable DIC eligibility to age 55, and be it further Resolved, that MOAA monitor all proposed SBP and DIC legislation and direct its efforts to ensure that such legislation as may be enacted does not break previous commitments to SBP and DIC annuitants, and be it further Resolved, that MOAA support legislation authorizing Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to surviving spouses of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
• Resolution No. 10 — Veterans’ Health Care and Benefits Whereas, Congress established a system to ensure priority access to VA health care for honorably separated or retired veterans who meet criteria for
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