Today's Officer - Winter 2007 - (Page 7) LEGISLATIVE FRONT AS I SEE IT EQUITY FOR INJURY Sometimes an urgent need demands a quick fix. Congress demonstrated that kind of action when it approved up to $100,000 in traumatic injury protection under the Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) program to help offset expenses incurred by servicemembers injured in service. In many cases, spouses or family members have had to quit their jobs to provide full-time support for severely injured servicemembers being treated long distances from home. The new law covered all future severe service-connected injuries. But coverage retroactive to Oct. 7, 2001, was limited to war-related injuries incurred in a combat zone. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Rep. Stephanie Herseth (D-S.D.) have introduced bills to correct this inequity by expanding retroactive coverage to include all qualifying service-connected injuries, regardless of where incurred. MOAA strongly endorses this plan. A severe injury generates the same needs for the person affected, whether that injury was incurred in Baghdad, Iraq, or Fort Bragg, N.C. Col. Steve Strobridge, USAF-Ret., director of MOAA Government Relations READER’S POLL HERE’S WHAT YOU SAID QUESTION: How much of your grocery shopping do you do at the commissary? I don’t use the commissary: 23% About half: 15% All of it: 9% Only a modest amount: 18% Most of it: 35% WHAT WILL YOU SAY NEXT? Go to www.todaysofficer.org to answer. QUESTION: Are you satisfied with your military health care benefits and coverage? A) Very satisfied B) Somewhat satisfied C) Neutral D) Somewhat dissatisfied E) Very dissatisfied $22 Drug Decisions in the Dark THE PENTAGON IS TRYING to encourage cost-effective beneficiary behavior by increasing copayments on certain costly drugs to $22. Retail store prescriptions for “non-formulary” drugs have increased by almost 25 percent in the past three years, and mail orders have increased by nearly 70 percent. But MOAA thinks beneficiaries don’t realize there are equally effective medications available for a $9 copayment. We’ve criticized DoD for not doing more to educate beneficiaries and their doctors, and for failing to give them advance notice when a medication’s copayment is being increased to $22. In most cases, patients first hear of the IMAGES: ABOVE, MATT CARR/GETTY IMAGES; TOP, STEVE BARRETT switch when a pharmacist charges them $22. Many patients don’t know they can get an alternative drug for $9, so they grudgingly pay the higher fee for the medication they’ve been prescribed. A person with three $22 monthly prescriptions could save $468 a year by asking his or her doctor to prescribe an equivalent drug that still carries a $9 copayment. If the $9 drug isn’t effective or causes adverse side effects, the doctor can seek a “medical necessity” ruling and prescribe the higher cost drug for the same $9 copayment. DoD needs a better information program, and beneficiaries need to work the system to save serious money. Winter 2007/08 TODAY’S OFFICER 7 http://www.todaysofficer.org
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