Military Officer - April 2008 - (Page 43) washingtonscene He made the case that there’s too much discussion about how much military health care costs the government and not enough about the level of benefit career military people earn through lengthy and arduous years of service. “We need to put some principles in law such as those expressed in Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s [(D-N.J.)] Military Health Care Protection Act” (S. 604), Ryan asserted. “We need to specify in law that military retirement and health benefits are the primary offset to the adverse conditions of service; that those decades of sacrifice constitute a hefty, in-kind prepayment of premiums; and that the percentage increase in military health fees in any given year shouldn’t exceed the percentage increase in military compensation.” Ryan concluded by saying Congress and the American public understand and appreciate the sacrifices made by military people. He said it is up to leadership to ensure that the budget matches their needs. Cmdr. John Class, USN-Ret., MOAA deputy director of Government Relations, joined a group of industry experts in a panel discussion concerning needs for an electronic health record. Class emphasized three main issues: An electronic system should give physicians the information they need quickly and easily to facilitate diagnosis and treatment decisions. Another requirement is to improve information flow, not only between DoD and the VA but also between military hospitals, network civilian providers, and non-network physicians. Finally, Class emphasized beneficiaries should have Web-based access to their health information to check test results, access medical history needed for insurance and long term care applications, and provide immunization and other information for children’s school and sports activities, etcetera. Patients shouldn’t have to visit their medical facility to get this information. Tell Us What You Really Think Survey features MOAA member input. A n article in the March/April issue of Foreign Policy presents findings from a December 2007 survey of more than 3,000 MOAA members conducted by MOAA and the Center for a New American Security. Results included input from several hundred active duty officers from other sources. The purpose of the survey was to get active duty and retired officers’ firsthand perspectives on the relative health of today’s military. Selected results from the survey: I 66 percent think America’s elected leaders are either “somewhat uninformed” or “very uninformed” about the U.S. military. I 74 percent think civilian leadership set unreasonable goals for the military to accomplish in postwar Iraq. I Nearly 90 percent think the war in Iraq has “stretched the U.S. military dangerously thin,” but 56 percent disagree that war demands have “broken the military.” I 78 percent support expanding options for legal, foreign permanent U.S. residents to serve in exchange for citizenship. I 53 percent agree, “Torture is never acceptable,” while 44 percent disagree. I 64 percent think the morale of the U.S. military is “somewhat high” or “very high.” I 77 percent think the level of U.S. defense spending should be increased in the next five to 10 years. MO — Contributors are Col. Steve Strobridge, USAFRet., director; Col. Mike Hayden, USAF-Ret.; Col. Bob Norton, USA-Ret.; Cmdr. René Campos, USNRet.; Cmdr. John Class, USN-Ret.; Col. Phil Odom, USAF-Ret.; Joy Dunlap; Cass Vreeland; and Bret Shea, MOAA’s Government Relations Department. APRIL 2008 MILITARY OFFICER 43
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.