MOAA Update: Panel Recommends TFL Fees

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Join MOAA Subscribe www.moaa.orgDecember 14, 2007
Mrs Epling,


Support New Military Tax Bill:
On December 12, the Senate passed H.R. 3997, which includes tax breaks for military members who are receiving combat pay, are saving for retirement, or who are purchasing a home. Additionally the bill provides tax relief for employers of reserve component personnel called to active duty and allows disabled retirees to file up to five years of amended tax returns to recover taxes paid on military retired pay (current law allows three years; the new law only applies to new claims filed within one year of the disability award).
Your help is needed to urge the House to approve the modified bill.


Medicare/TRICARE Payment Fix Imminent?

Congress is virtually out of time to resolve disagreements between the House, the Senate, and the Administration on how to reverse the scheduled 10% cut in Medicare and TRICARE payments scheduled for January under current law. The stumbling block has been how to pay for the fix. But a breakthrough Thursday night may put a bill on the President's desk by Christmas.
TRICARE For Lifers: Pony Up?

The Task Force on the Future of Military Health Care announced this week that, in addition to TRICARE fee increases for retirees under 65, it will propose an enrollment fee for TRICARE For Life.
Hill Struggling to Address Wounded, Family Needs

Back-to-back hearings on suicide prevention and outpatient waiting times in the veterans' health care system left members of Congress frustrated and grappling with more questions than answers.
More Defense Bill Provisions

Last week's MOAA update highlighted a number of personnel and compensation upgrades in the FY2008 Defense Authorization Act. Check out some additional provisions of the new legislation, and an important correction to the Guard/Reserve retirement age change we reported last week.
Medicare/TRICARE Payment Fix Imminent?

As a major cut in Medicare and TRICARE payments looms on January 1st, Congress and the Administration have been haggling down to the wire over how to pay for a legislative fix that would stave off those cuts in payments to doctors.
If Congress fails to pass legislation reversing the cuts, or if the President vetoes it, doctors will take a 10% pay cut from Medicare and TRICARE, which are already two of the lowest-paying insurance programs in the country.
Earlier this week, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, raised the possibility that the legislation might have to be punted until next year. That would mean the cuts would take effect January 1, and anything Congress did to change that would mean Medicare and TRICARE would have to go back and make retroactive payment fixes - a nightmare for them and even more so for doctors and patients.
But reality seemed to sink in Thursday night, as Hill leaders came up with a new plan to fund at least a one-year fix in a way that the President would sign it. Hopefully, that means doctors and patients will be able to breathe a sigh of relief by Christmas.
But ending every year in these endless rounds of budget crises is no way to run two huge health care systems that 80 million Americans depend on.

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TRICARE For Lifers: Pony Up?

The Task Force on the Future of Military Health Care met with the Defense Policy Board this week to discuss the outline of final task force recommendations to change the military health care system. The specifics of the recommendations will be unveiled at a December 20 press conference.
The task force was mandated by Congress in the face of repeated Administration proposals for major TRICARE fee hikes. Its 14 members were appointed by the Secretary of Defense, with half coming from inside and half coming from outside the Department. It is co-chaired by prominent health care economist Dr. Gail Wilensky and Air Force Gen. John D. W. Corley.
It's been evident for months that the task force will pretty much endorse the kinds of fee hike proposals that the Defense Department has been proposing. Those proposals include:
* Increasing TRICARE fees for retirees and survivors and their families who are under age 65,
* Establishing a multi-tier fee system based on retired pay, and
* Raising pharmacy copays for all beneficiaries.
The big news this week was the task force's indication that it also will recommend a new enrollment fee for TRICARE For Life beneficiaries.
MOAA has said for some time that it would only be a matter of time before this was proposed, since most of the Defense Department's rhetoric about rising health care costs focused on the expense of Congress' action to authorize TFL and pharmacy benefits to Medicare eligibles back in 2001.
But Congress and everyone else in the country certainly knew six years ago that TFL wasn't going to come cheap. It was authorized in recognition that these older beneficiaries had been unfairly disenfranchised from military health benefits. Congress agreed that wasn't fair and that their decades of service and sacrifice should earn them the best health care deal in the country.
The question for the task force and Congress now is, "If Congress thought that was true in 2001, what is it about having gone through six years of war that makes anyone think military retirees are somehow less deserving in 2007?"
This will be a major issue for MOAA and The Military Coalition when Congress reconvenes next year. Our February magazine (coming to your mailboxes the end of January) will have a tear-out letter to let you express your views to Congress on this topic.

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Hill Struggling to Address Wounded, Family Needs

On December 12, the House Committee on Veterans Affairs held a hearing on military and veteran suicide rates in the wake of a CBS report that veterans are twice as likely to commit suicide as non-veterans, with recent war veterans in their early 20s at even greater risk.
Parents of a National Guard soldier told the Committee of their son's struggle with PTSD and a seemingly insensitive veterans' system before taking his life on Thanksgiving Day in 2005. A series of mental health professionals, researchers, families, veterans groups, and legislators urged more open discussion and destigmatization of mental health issues. They urged recognizing PTSD as an injury, as we do visible combat wounds, rather than as a "disease" or "disorder". Troops and their families must have confidence that seeking care for this injury won't hurt their careers.
Families and the Committee expressed dismay that the reaction of VA officials has seemed more focused on critiquing CBS' findings rather than viewing them as a wake-up call. Chairman Filner (D-CA) closed the hearing upset with what he called the VA's "analysis paralysis" and vowed to take up these issues early next year when the new VA Secretary, former Army Surgeon General James Peake, is on board.
The same day, the House Veterans Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation took up the issue of outpatient waiting times in the VA, expressing frustration that no solution seems imminent to control wait times and improve access to services.
Subcommittee members expressed frustration with the lack of a common VA definition of 'waiting time' or scheduling process, noting that the new scheduling system scheduled to roll out in 2011 will have taken ten years to build. One member expressed frustration that some veterans' organizations are adamantly opposed to contracting health care outside the VA system, saying "If you can’t get timely care in the VA, you're not getting good care."
New provisions in the FY2008 Defense Authorization Act offer a start on some improvements for veterans and families struggling with the visible and not so visible wounds of war. MOAA remains committed to pursuing the full support and care they deserve.

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More Defense Bill Provisions

This week, the House passed the final version of the FY2008 Defense Authorization Act by a vote of 370 to 49. The Senate is expected to follow suit imminently, and every indication is that the President will sign it into law.
Last week's update highlighted some of the key fixes in this huge piece of legislation that's the primary vehicle every year for manpower, compensation and benefit changes.
Unfortunately, last week's update included one important error. In scrambling to run through the 1,000 page bill Friday morning before putting out the update, we misread the provision that reduced the Reserve retirement age by 3 months for each cumulative 90 days ordered to active duty during war, emergency or certain other circumstances. We initially thought it was the Senate-approved language, which would have allowed credit for such active service retroactive to October 7, 2001.
Upon rereading the provision, we were extremely disappointed to realize that the final legislation only allows credit for active service performed after the new language is signed into law - which will happen sometime in the next few weeks. MOAA thinks that's extremely unfair to the thousands of Guard and Reserve members who have sacrificed for one or more tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we will work hard next year to win retroactive credit for that service.
Additional provisions of interest in the new legislation include:
End Strength: Authorizes Army and Marine Corps increase of 13,000 and 9,000, respectively.
Army Referral Bonus: Authorizes the Army to pay up to $2,000 to active and retired Army personnel (including civilian employees) for referral of an individual who completes Army basic training.
Thrift Savings Plan: Includes a MOAA recommendation to authorize the Department of Defense to make mid-month contributions to Thrift Savings accounts (previously, contributions were made once per month even though deductions from pay were made twice per month, so participants haven’t been able to maximize returns on their investments) .
Income Replacement for Reservists: Extends income replacement pay to reservists who are retained on active duty for medical care or disability if otherwise eligible.
Space-A-Travel: Allows Space-A-travel for retired members and dependents living in U.S. possessions for specialized medical care not available at their location.
TRICARE Pharmacy: Requires drug manufacturers to provide the Defense Department the same discounts on drugs sold to military patients through retail pharmacies that it provides through military and VA installations and TRICARE’s mail order pharmacy.
Military to Civilian Medical Conversions: Prohibits converting military medical and dental positions to civilian positions.

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Holiday Joy for Families

MOAA will hold its December on-line legislative chat with Joy Dunlap to discuss military family and spouse issues. Join us on December 18 from 10-11 a.m. (EST) to discuss your issues for 2008. You can email your questions to legischat@moaa. org ahead of time to increase your chances of getting them answered.

COLA Watch

The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the monthly consumer price index (CPI) for November. Amid rising energy costs, inflation shot up 0.8% above October. Inflation for the fiscal year now stands at a cumulative 1.1%.



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