Military Officer - January 2007 - (Page 36)

washingtonscene Military Apples, Civilian Oranges ■ Shifting health costs to beneficiaries ignores that the government has a higher obligation to military people than civilian employers have to their employees. Unique health and retirement benefits are an essential offset to unique, arduous service conditions. expenses with pretax dollars. Authorize pretax payment of TRICARE Prime enrollment fees and premiums for TRICARE supplemental, long term care, and TRICARE dental insurance. Pretax premium payments and FSAs are standard beneﬁts for all other federal and corporate employees. Military beneﬁciaries should have the same options. Employer incentives MOAA will seek adjustments to new legislation intended to bar employers from paying employees to take TRICARE rather than employer-provided health coverage. Additional protections are necessary to guard against discriminatory penalties being imposed on military beneﬁciaries who work for employers that offer cafeteria plans and other cash-based options that are not TRICARE-speciﬁc. meet unique needs of Guard and Reserve veterans and their families. Families providing direct services to severely disabled veterans should have the needed resources during the post-separation period. DoD and the VA should collaborate on providing long-term medical and nonmedical counseling and support services for survivors and families of the severely injured. MOAA will continue to protect against any new initiative to force dual-eligible beneﬁciaries to choose between DoD and VA health systems for the government’s budgetary and planning convenience. Retired pay and survivor issues Eliminate SBP-DIC offset MOAA will continue to ﬁght for legislation to repeal the dollar-for-dollar reduction in Survivor Beneﬁt Plan (SBP) annuities for any amount of Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) paid by the VA to survivors of servicemembers who died of service-connected causes. MOAA strongly believes that when a servicemember’s death is caused by service, the survivor should receive DIC as an added indemnity payment, without reducing SBP beneﬁts. VA/DoD issues Full funding of VA medical programs is as important as that for defense programs. More than one million active duty, National Guard, and Reserve troops have now served in the war on terrorism, and thousands are returning home injured in body and mind. The Government Accountability Ofﬁce warned last year that the “[VA’s] funding request was informed, but not driven by, projected demand.” MOAA thinks that the VA health care budget must match funding to actual demand and its own modest access standards. Timely appointments remain a signiﬁcant problem for thousands of veterans. In addition, VA budget shortfalls continue in crucial areas such as prostheses. MOAA remains concerned about the transfer of disabled servicemembers and their families between DoD and VA health care systems. Both departments must do more to speed the development of compatible medical records, a “one-stop” separation physical, and VA beneﬁts determinations prior to discharge. We must upgrade transition assistance services to 36 MILITARY OFFICER JANUARY 2007 Paid-up SBP equity The current 2008 effective date for 30-year paid-up SBP coverage is patently unfair to “greatest generation” retirees. Under current law, those older servicemembers will have to pay SBP premiums for up to 36 years before attaining eligibility for “paid-up” status, whereas post-1977 enrollees will pay no more than 30 years. The effective date must be changed to provide them equitable relief. Concurrent receipt MOAA will seek expanded, accelerated restoration of earned retired pay for all disabled retirees and is particularly supportive of full, immediate concurrent receipt for servicemembers designated

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Military Officer - January 2007

Military Officer - January 2007 Contents From the Editor From the Chairman Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Chapter Activities Cover Story: Osprey Rising? Battlefields of the Great War I Resolve ... New Mission Pages of History Information Exchange Advertising Index MOAA Scholarship Donors MOAA Member Services MOAA Calendar Sounding Taps Member Books Encore

Military Officer - January 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.