Military Officer - October 2007 - (Page 32)

washingtonscene Military Spouse Memorial Act ■ MOAA and The Military Coalition are proud to support this important initiative. Visit http:// capwiz.com/moaa/issues/ bills, scroll down to “Veterans and Other Issues,” and click on H.R. 3026 to send an MOAA-suggested message urging your U.S. representative to cosponsor Drake’s bill. Drake Seeks Memorial Facility would honor military spouses and survivors. W Rep. Thelma Drake (R-Va.) hen it comes to honoring the sacriﬁces and contributions that military spouses have made to national defense and our country, Rep. Thelma Drake (R-Va.) intends to make sure there is no generation gap and that no spouse is left behind. Last month, Drake introduced H.R. 3026, the Military Spouses Memorial Act of 2007, which would “establish in our nation’s Capitol a memorial commemorating the selﬂess sacriﬁce of military spouses from 1776 to the present day.” The monument is intended to recognize the strength and courage of all military spouses, including survivors, and tell their story to all generations. MOAA and The Military Coalition are proud to support this important initiative. Primed for Curtailment? 170,000 could lose TRICARE Prime coverage. A s DoD took the first step to solicit new bids for regional TRICARE contracts, MOAA expressed concern to DoD health leaders that the new contract plan could curtail coverage options for nearly 170,000 retired families. Of retirees under age 65 who use TRICARE, roughly half use TRICARE Prime (the military managed-care system) and half use TRICARE Standard (the insurance-type, fee-for-service option). TRICARE Prime guarantees enrollees a participating doctor. There’s a modest annual enrollment fee and a modest ﬂat-rate copayment for doctor visits in the civilian system but not many other costs. TRICARE Standard allows more ﬂexibility to choose doctors and see specialists but doesn’t guarantee a participating doctor and carries an annual deductible and a 25-percent copayment for inpatient and outpatient care. Many purchase TRICARE supplement policies to protect against the risk of copayments and excess charges by non-participating doctors. The three regional contractors who won the current TRICARE contracts were offered incentives to establish TRICARE Prime options in areas with signiﬁcant military populations, even outside the vicinity of a military installation (where Prime must be offered). And the current contractors did so, enrolling nearly 170,000 retirees in so-called Prime service areas (PSAs) where there’s no military base. But the new contract solicitation would drop that incentive, effectively limiting Prime to areas near military bases and Base Realignment and Closure locations. This raises the real potential that 170,000 retired Prime enrollees could ﬁnd themselves booted to TRICARE Standard as their only option. Why the change? The most obvious reason is that Prime is more expensive than Standard, and DoD is trying to cut health care costs. MOAA thinks this service curtailment would be penny-wise and pound-foolish, and MOAA President Vice Adm. Norb Ryan Jr., USN-Ret., has written the assistant secretary of defense for Health Affairs to urge continuation of the PSA incentives in the new contracts. MOAA certainly is not bad-mouthing Standard. Hundreds of thousands of military beneﬁciaries prefer that option’s increased ﬂexibility. But choice is a huge element of satisfaction, allowing beneﬁciaries to pick the option that best meets their 32 MILITARY OFFICER OCTOBER 2007 http://capwiz.com/moaa/issues/bills http://capwiz.com/moaa/issues/bills http://capwiz.com/moaa/issues/bills

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

Military Officer - October 2007 Contents From the Editor From the President Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Chapter Activities Cover Story: A Hero's Welcome? Partners in Patriotism Tales from Beyond the Battlefield Financial Results of MOAA Pages of History Information Exchange Faces of MOAA Member Books MOAA Scholarship Donors Advertising Index MOAA Member Services MOAA Calendar Sounding Taps Encore

Military Officer - October 2007

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