The new defense budget isn’t just whacking headcount in the Army and Marines, it’s about to increase the cost of Tricare to retirees. Forget the promises of the past, this, apparently, is the new reality: The Defense Department’s proposed 2013 budget calls for annual enrollment fees for retirees in Tricare Prime to rise next year by 30 percent to 78 percent, from the current $460 or $520 for families to between $600 and $820, depending on military retirement income. “Working-age retirees” — those younger than 65 — also would pay annual enrollment fees for Tricare Standard and Extra: $70 for an individual and $140 for a family. These would be the first enrollment fees for Standard and Extra in Tricare history. Tricare for Life beneficiaries would also pay an enrollment fee for the first time in its history. The resistance is forming: “We take issue with the Pentagon’s decision to raise fees for beneficiaries, relying on them to pay for the budget when it’s the department’s responsibility to increase efficiencies and cut their own costs,” said Kathy Beasley, health care committee co-chairwoman for the Military Coalition, an umbrella group of more than 30 national military associations. I’m not going to presume to speak for most veterans, I’m just going to say that I understand the necessity to pay for these benefits, and I’m even open to some reasonable increases in what was sold to us as an “earned benefit”, however, 78% (btw, full disclosure, I’m a Tricare Prime enrollee)?! And that’s not the worst part. This devil is in the details. Pay careful attention to this: The groups also are concerned about the Pentagon’s call to link fee hikes to retirement income and index future increases to the medical inflation rate, which tends to rise faster than overall inflation or the annual cost-of-living adjustment in military retired pay. Means testing? Among the military? Nice. Oh, and that index they’re talking about? Kiss any COLAs you get goodbye: When lawmakers last year approved the first fee increases since Tricare was created in the mid-1990s, they limited future hikes to the retiree COLA. The most recent COLA increase was 3.6 percent; medical inflation typically rises by 6 percent or 7 percent a year. Said MOAA: “These new increases, coming on top of last year’s changes, are a classic ‘bait and switch’ that would raise beneficiary fees by as much as $1,500 a year or more,” said retired Vice Adm. Norb Ryan, president of the Military Officers Association of America. But hey, this is generous says the Pentagon’s comptroller general: Tricare “will still be quite generous compared to the private-sector plans, Aetna or Blue Cross Blue Shield. We still think it’s generous, as it should be, but we feel we need to move in that direction,” Hale said. Because, you know, hanging out for 20 to 30 years in corporate America is just like spending 20 to 30 years in the military. Or something. ~McQ Twitter: @McQandO
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blackfive/~3/BW3-_-w6WMI/proposed-tricare-changesthanks-for-your-service-vets.html
Posted
Feb 23 2012, 09:23 AM
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BLACKFIVE