Military Officer - December 2008 - (Page 36) washingtonscene dicted a retention meltdown before 2008. The irony is that the continuing patriotism, resilience, and dedication of the military people who’ve carried the full burden of wartime sacrifice — far beyond any reasonable expectation — has had the perplexing effect of desensitizing our leaders to that sacrifice. The thinking seems to be, “If they’ve borne up all this time, they’ll probably keep doing it.” How else to explain those leaders’ knee-jerk inclination to scale back force increases that offer the only possibility of substantive relief for military families? vidual family needs, whether they live adjacent to or far from military or VA facilities. Top Five MOAA Member Inquiries You asked, MOAA answered. Gates Seeks Family Input M Key needs includes choice, reduced complexity. A t an Oct. 20 Pentagon summit for wounded, ill, and injured servicemembers and their families and survivors, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates compassionately stated, “Other than winning the wars we are in, my highest priority is providing the best possible care for those who are wounded in combat.” Families of wounded servicemembers were flown in from around the world so Pentagon officials could listen to their concerns and ideas on how to improve existing support services. These families acknowledged much progress has been made, but a number of gaps still exist. Key needs include simplified health and benefit systems, because current health, disability, and other programs are so complicated beneficiaries have a hard time understanding them, let alone navigating them. Families also want a system of care that offers some choice in care and services and that is flexible enough to meet their indi- OAA receives thousands of phone calls and hundreds of e-mails every week. Check out MOAA’s answers to members’ most frequent questions about possible effects of the economic downturn, concurrent receipt, the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP), and more. Was anything included in the FY 2009 Defense Authorization Act to expand concurrent receipt? No. Unfortunately, a flap over porkbarrel spending and a tight schedule forced the Senate to drop consideration of more than 300 amendments — including two MOAA had pushed to expand concurrent receipt eligibility. Renewing those initiatives still will be a top MOAA priority next year. Is it possible the SBP-Dependency and Indemnity Compensation offset still could be eliminated in the post-election, lameduck session? Unfortunately, no. As this column went to press, Congress expected to convene a short lame-duck session, but only to work on broader legislation to boost the economy. Once again, we’ll have to renew that battle in 2009. I heard that the FY 2009 Defense Authorization Bill waives copayments for preventive services, and Medicare-eligible beneficiaries could be reimbursed for copayments. Is this true? The new defense legislation includes several options to improve incentives to use preventive-care services. Those 36 MILITARY OFFICER DECEMBER 2008
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