(Via Milinet)
Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
June 7, 2000
Senate Set To Broaden Military Retiree Care
By Dale Eisman, The Virginian-Pilot
WASHINGTON -- The Senate appears poised to back a 10-year, $40
billion increase in military retiree health-care benefits,
giving
more than 1 million former career service members over age 65
the
same health insurance coverage now offered to younger retirees.
The plan unveiled Tuesday by Virginia Sen. John W. Warner, who
for
months had insisted that such dramatic increases in coverage
were
unaffordable, is expected to win approval easily today. It would
not
take effect until October 2001, a delay Warner attributed to the
need
to give the Pentagon's Tricare insurance program time to prepare
to
serve the additional beneficiaries.
``We just figured out that we could get some additional funds,''
Warner said. ``It is expensive. But I believe it is essential,''
he
told colleagues. More than 124,000 military retirees reside in
Virginia; about 40,000 of them are 65 or older.
Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said
his
proposal would keep a promise that generations of military
recruiters
and leaders made to those veterans -- that if they would stay in
uniform at least 20 years, they and their spouses would receive
lifetime medical care.
Warner asserted that ``there is no statutory foundation to the
claim,'' that the retirees are legally entitled to coverage. But
he
said Congress' decision in 1964 to force those over 65 into the
Medicare program amounts to ``a breach of promise.''
``It is time that we face that situation, because good faith
representations were made,'' he added.
While Warner called his plan ``a quantum leap forward,'' it
stops
short of providing the free care that a nationwide network of
retiree
activists has been demanding.
``It's obviously a response to the grass roots,'' said one
congressional staffer tracking the issue. With messages from
retirees
flooding congressional offices, Republican leaders decided they
needed a substantial reform bill to deprive the largely
Democratic
backers of free care of what could be a potent issue in the fall
election, he suggested.
A proposal to be put before senators this morning by Sen. Tim
Johnson, D-S.D., would let military retirees over 65 enroll --
at no
cost -- in the same health insurance program now available to
federal
civilian retirees.
Johnson's bill, which in another form was blocked from
consideration
in the House last month, would cost about $9 billion per year,
the
Congressional Budget Office says.
The House already has approved a considerably more modest
package of
military health-care reforms, including a plan to let Medicare
reimburse the Defense Department for care provided to retirees
over
65 at military hospitals. Critics say that proposal would do
little
to help the thousands of retirees who live far from military
bases
and hospitals.
Differences between the House and Senate plans mean the final
shape
of health-care improvements will not be resolved until later
this
year.
Warner and the Armed Services Committee staff used what appeared
to
be some creative accounting to get around military spending caps
included in a budget plan Congress adopted in April.
A five-year $400 million ``reserve fund'' for health care in
that
plan will cover $366 million in ``mandatory'' costs for the
first
three years of the, staffers said. That leaves future Congresses
to
cover an additional $9.7 billion in ``discretionary'' expenses
not
limited by the budget deal.
Military retirees under 65 currently have two choices for health
insurance. They may pay $230 per year to enroll in Tricare
Prime, the
military's health maintenance organization, or may opt for
Tricare
Standard, a more traditional plan that lets them choose their
physicians but requires them to pay annual deductibles and
covers
only 75 percent of most charges.
Those over 65, however, are forced out of Tricare and into the
Medicare program, which provides no prescription drug coverage.
Many
of the elderly retirees pay $5,000 or more annually on
supplemental
policies to fill gaps in their Medicare coverage. Similar
supplements
for those under 65 on Tricare Standard typically cost less than
$2,000.
Warner's plan would keep those over 65 under Medicare but would
make
Tricare the ``second-payer'' for their medical expenses, using
it to
replace the commercial supplement policies.
``If it's done right,'' the plan would put the supplemental
policies
out of business, said Chuck Partridge, a lobbyist for the
National
Association for the Uniformed Services, one of several retiree
groups
that has been lobbying for free care for retirees over 65.
``The whole thing hinges on the quality of the program,''
Partridge
suggested. If the Pentagon can solve other problems with
Tricare,
including low reimbursement rates for Tricare Prime that have
kept
thousands of physicians from participating in the program, many
retirees will be satisfied, he said.
But if those problems persist, retirees ``will be back at the
barricades,'' he predicted.
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