Military Financial Advice - Army Times

Lawmakers balk at Tricare fee hikes

Two key senators said April 16 that they will not go along with Bush administration pleas for dramatic increases in Tricare fees for military retirees, and also will work on providing better health coverage to service members who are discharged from active duty without medical retirement pay.

At a hearing in which major military associations presented their annual wish lists of improvements in pay, allowances and other benefits, Sens. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said they might be willing to support modest Tricare fee increases, but will not back a Pentagon proposal seeking Tricare fee increases of as much as 400 percent for some retirees.

Nelson and Graham are the chairman and ranking Republican, respectively, on the Senate Armed Services personnel subcommittee.

Representatives testifying on behalf of the military associations expressed a willingness to accept fee increases that are no more than the size of the annual military pay raise or the annual cost-of-living adjustment in military retired pay, which gives Nelson and Graham some maneuvering room.

Steve Strobridge of the Military Officers Association of America said capped fee increases were acceptable — as long as they are part of a broader policy that makes clear that co-payments, deductibles and enrollment fees for Tricare users should not be determined simply by health care budget shortfalls.

“We realize it is unrealistic to have no increases, ever,” said Strobridge, who co-chairs the Military Coalition, an umbrella group of more than 30 military-related associations.

The Pentagon estimates Tricare fee hikes would save about $1.9 billion in the 2009 defense budget. If the committee adopts lower fee increases or rejects any increases, it would have to make up the funding gap somehow.

Meredith Beck, national policy director of the Wounded Warrior Project, raised the issue of health care for troops separated from the military due to disabilities. She proposed providing three years of Tricare coverage to all disabled service members and their families to cushion the impact of leaving the military.

The 2008 Defense Authorization Act, signed into law in January, provides three years of Tricare coverage for disabled service members upon separation, but only when the VA is unable to provide the same type of medical care that the military was providing — and the extension does not apply to families.

Nelson and Graham said they supported Beck’s proposal.

Transfer of GI Bill benefits

On another high-profile issue, Graham said he will propose allowing active-duty members to transfer GI Bill education benefits to family members, and also to provide education benefits to people who entered the military before 1985 and missed out on the modern GI Bill.

Graham’s GI Bill initiative allows service members to transfer benefits to their families, with two eligibility points: After six years of military service, up to half of a member’s GI Bill entitlement could be transferred to a spouse or children, and after 12 years of service, all of the entitlement could be transferred.

The Defense Department is working on its own GI Bill transfer plan. Details have not been announced, but military officials have talked about limiting transfer rights to people in critically needed skills who agree to undetermined periods of additional service. Graham’s proposal would apply to anyone who fulfills the required service obligations.

Graham announced his idea shortly after Kathleen Moakler, government relations director of the National Military Family Association, said it is important for the government to help military spouses get college educations to improve their job prospects.

Moakler said either GI Bill benefits should be transferable to spouses or a tuition assistance program should be created just for spouses, similar to the tuition assistance program for service members.

Graham said his GI Bill plan also would provide education benefits to people still on active duty who entered service between 1977 and 1985, when the only college plan offered was the Veterans’ Educational Assistance Program, under which the government would contribute $2 toward education costs, up to a maximum of $5,400, for every $1 contributed by the member.

Joseph Barnes of the Fleet Reserve Association, the other co-chairman of the Military Coalition, said VEAP-era people still on active duty feel cheated.

“We are not going to leave those people behind,” Graham vowed.

DISCUSS: Should some pay more than others?