McKeon plan calls for small Tricare fee hikes - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

McKeon plan calls for small Tricare fee hikes

The 2012 defense budget drafted by the House Armed Services Committee chairman allows Tricare Prime fee increases, just like the Defense Department has asked, but caps long-term adjustment to the annual increase in retired pay.

The plan, prepared by Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., for consideration by the committee next week, allows a 13 percent increase in enrollment fees on Oct. 1, just as the Defense Department requested. But, for fiscal 2013 and beyond, McKeon has rejected a Pentagon initiative to increase fees each year to match rising medical costs, according to committee sources who asked not to be identified.

Instead, McKeon proposes to set into law a strict formula to increase Tricare fees each October by the amount that retired pay increased the previous December. That means the Oct. 1, 2012, Tricare fee increase would equal the cost-of-living adjustment made on Dec. 1, 2011, in military retired pay. If there is no adjustment, as there has not been for the last two years, there would be no Tricare fee increase.

McKeon’s plan will be included in the draft defense bill he introduces for debate on May 11 when the armed services committee meets to pass the bill. It could be altered only if someone on the committee offers an amendment to strip or modify the Tricare proposal.

McKeon is overriding an effort launched Wednesday by the armed services subcommittee on military personnel. The personnel panel, headed by Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., approved a provision in its version of the draft defense bill that would have barred the Defense Department from making any Tricare fee changes for one year, and included no provisions for fee hikes in 2013 and beyond.

Committee sources said it is McKeon’s prerogative as chairman to make any changes he wishes in the bill he introduces for consideration by the full committee.

McKeon’s plan, which is certain to be opposed by military and veterans groups that wanted no Tricare fee increases, does exactly what many associations had requested by allowing the modest increases — $2.50 a month for individuals and $5 a month for families — in fiscal 2012, marking the first fee hikes in 16 years, and then preventing retirees from being hit with massive annual increases in the future by making sure the percentage increase is linked to the retirement COLA.

In language accompanying the defense bill, McKeon repeats an argument long made by retirees about why their health care benefits should be protected. The report says that military service has “unique and expanding demands” and that retirees have pre-paid for some of the cost of their retirement benefits through their service and sacrifice.