Thread: Obama Urges Congress to Support (Higher) Tricare Fees, More Base Closings

Nov 19, 2013
Military.com| by Richard Sisk

Obama Urges Congress to Support Tricare Fees

On Monday the White House pressed the Pentagon to rein in Tricare costs and begin a new round of base closings as the Senate took up the National Defense Authorization Act on the military’s 2014 budget.

There are a number of areas of agreement with the initial markup of the Senate Armed Services Committee on the NDAA, but the administration "has serious concerns with certain provisions," Office of Management and Budget officials said in a lengthy response to the markup.

OMB called on SASC to control Tricare costs at the Department of Defense "while keeping retired beneficiaries' share of these costs well below the levels experienced when the Tricare program was implemented in the mid-1990s."

Slowing the growth of Tricare costs would result in savings of $902 million in fiscal year 2014 and $9.3 billion through fiscal year 2018. Those savings were needed to offset projected increases in personnel costs, OMB said.

President Obama has proposed slowing this growth by introducing a new set of enrollment fees and higher co-pays to retirees under the age of 65.

The Pentagon proposed an annual enrollment fee based on a percentage of retired pay for Medicare-eligible retirees in the Tricare For Life Program. Working age retirees in the Tricare Standard and Tricare Extra programs also would face new annual enrollment fees phased in over five years.

The White House also proposed an increase to the current enrollment fee for working age retirees in the Tricare Prime program phased in over the next four years.

As for co-pays, the White House has proposed increasing Tricare Prime co-pays for retirees and their beneficiaries by $4 for medical visits not related to mental health.

Pentagon leaders have said that spiral personnel costs to include healthcare are eating up too much of the military's annual budgets and putting training and readiness missions at risk.

"Without serious attempts to achieve significant savings in this area, which consumes roughly half of the DoD budget and is increasing every year, we risk becoming an unbalanced force," Hagel said.

The official Statement of Administration Policy in response to the initial Senate markup wasn't limited to Tricare. OMB officials also "strongly objected" to the markup's proposal for a major review of the infrastructure at overseas facilities before considering another round of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission procedure for bases in the U.S.

"Without authorization for a new round of BRAC, DoD may not properly align the military's infrastructure with the needs of the evolving force structure, which is critical to ensuring that limited resources are available for the highest priorities of the Armed Forces," the OMB statement said.

The administration objected to several other provisions in the markup while commending the Committee for working to offer stronger protections for sexual assault victims in the ranks.

The SASC markup would amend Article 60 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice to limit the authority of a convening authority to modify the findings of a court-martial on specified sexual offenses, and also require automatic higher-level review of any decision by a commander not to prosecute a sexual assault allegation.

However, the markup would not take sexual assault cases and other major crimes out of the chain of command as proposed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. Gillibrand's proposed amendment to the NDAA on stripping commanders of their courts martial authority was expected to be debated later this week.

In introducing the markup, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the SASC chairman, said the "bipartisan bill provides for our nation's defense and upholds our obligations to our men and women in uniform and their families."

Levin, who opposes the Gillibrand amendment, said "an important part of keeping faith with servicemembers is addressing the plague of sexual assaults in our military, and the bill includes the strongest, most effective approach to combating sexual assault."

The SASC markup authorizes an FY2014 active duty end strength for the Army of 520,000; the Navy, 323,600; the Marine Corps, 190,200; and the Air Force, 327,600.

The Committee also authorized a one percent across-the-board pay raise for all members of the uniformed services in fiscal year 2014, a proposal backed by OMB.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2...ml?ESRC=dod.nl

And yet CINC Obama was fully poised to excise untold and incalculable global costs and was prepared to cast the entire world into the Third World War over an (unauthorized) invasion of Syria.

From the blog:

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md1956
• 2 hours ago

What our wonderful president has forgot is that we actually sacrificed for this benefit unlike himself or the millions and illegal aliens he wants to give to. To all of you on active duty give serious thought about reenlisting. What is promised for your sacrifice is easily taken away, especially by a democrat. You'll receive a better benefit if you become a single parent, not work and suck the nipple of our government for the lazy.

Avatar
An Army Joe
• 3 hours ago

Ok, since we are talking about how the government works...The Democrats are currently responsible for us being financially downtrodden. They are the party of "give something for nothing". Point in fact, under the welfare reform act (that Clinton gets credit for, but was a Republican bill that he had no choice but to sign) unemployed recipient's were mandated to show that they were seeking employment to receive the benefit. This requirement was stripped away by the democrats in 2009....I have and idea, how about community service for the community tax dollars being received. Clean a park or highway and EARN that money...The Dems practice modern day enslavement. "Don't vote for the Big Bad Republicans as they will take away all your freebies and make you EARN your keep...Vote for us and we will just give them to you, no questions asked". Wake up and see that THEY (the Dems) don't want you to be empowered, because then you'll be smart and not vote for them.

56comms
• 3 hours ago

ObamaBot and the DeceptiCONS strike again. Its bad enough that they screwed over 170,000 military retirees when they dropped us from TRICARE Prime and put us on TRICARE Standard or Extra. I guess going with the highest bidder for the contract paid off for Washington. The bid was 2 hundred million more then the next bidder. I saw a news report on a woman who thought her medical bill was to high so she went to the news. They found out that the hospital charged her $15 for a pill that cost them 0.03 cents. And much more rediculose prices. The hospital spoksman blamed it on those who do not have insurance. So everyone with inusrance has to make up for what they lost.
We have over 40 millian imigrants in this country all getting free health care. and millions of our citizens who can't afford it. They also found out that the guy in charge makes 2.1 million a year, but that was not figured into the high cost. The high cost of health care is being driven by GREED and CORRUPTION in Washington, Health Insurance companies and the Medical Community. but instead of going after the problem, they are forcing us to make a choice. Pay the high cost or Die. And to think our Government looks down on other countries who treat there citizens bad but yet they do the same thing to us. A Politican will promise you the moorn to get elected. Once in office they turn around, drop there pants and show you the moorn they promised.

Dmullins84 56comms
• 2 hours ago

Remove the 40 million people running into the Emergency Rooms for service and take care of part of the problem. Make them help pull the wagon. That is exactly what the President is trying to do to remedy part of the problem with the ACA. Unfortunately the Conservatives wants no part of this. Rotten Politics is holding up the wagon.

An Army Joe 56comms
• 3 hours ago

Just wait until we start seeing the REAL cost of Obamacare....You think prices are out of control now, just wait....Isn't it amazing that the Repubs got blamed for the shutdown when all they wanted to do was stop this Obamacare travesty from happening. This hike in Tricare fees has NOTHING to do with slimming the defense budget but has everything to do with the rise of healthcare under Obamacare....read the bill...you'll be amazed at what we are going to have to pay for.

Jay Needham
• 3 hours ago

After 20 years as an Infantryman, and an Airborne Ranger, wounded in combat and with a 60% disability serving in 3 separate conflicts. Now a chemical Engineer, I am amazed at the ignorance I am reading from fellow Americans comments prior to mine. The time is coming for the issues that face us and everyone on this planet can not be fixed by one party, one president, one country. We are in a financial state in this country because we give away gave away to much to the world and to our own society, We are also in this bind because we chose to fight 2 wars of over 10 years along with conducting our budgetary practices on an as usual level. During WW2 we cut back rationed made sacrifices to help pay for the war. But heaven forbid we raised taxes to pay for the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq we cant upset the bigoted redneck blame everything on Obama Tea party, haven't any of you ever heard of this one element of our government called the congress??? which I might add is Republican controlled and one of the main reasons nothing can get done in this country, as the republican party is even split between moderates and the tea party extremists.
All I can say is try educating your selves about how the US government actually works and how the it is suppose to work then read non-politically aligned sources of information instead of Rush and or Fox news.
Then come back here and make some statements from a position of a common reality as opposed to a position of a singular situation(how it only effects me)
Grow up the days of sock hop and leave it to beaver are over

I'm disgusted. What an evil person.

Before Tricare is even touched medicaid and welfare need to vanish 100%. Its absolute insanity to want to increase welfare while at the same time taking away from Veterans who sacrificed for our country. If anything Veterans benefits should be doubled while Welfare benefits cut in half.

A 100% disabled veteran with a wife and 2 kids gets $37k a year. For someone who sacrificed for their country that was way under what they should be getting. Further the benefit plan is based around supposedly paying a Veteran what they *could* have made as an average income as a college graduate if not for their injury. Veteran benefits for disabled need a significant increase and retired also need an increase. But this admin is far more far more concerned about giving handouts to deadbeats who don't give a damn about their country and about giving benefits to foreigners.

Obama to Force Military Families Away From Tricare …By Tripling Their Fees.