The Pentagon-appointed Task Force on the Future of Military Health will endorse higher medical fees, deductible amounts and co-payments for under-65 retirees and their families in an interim report to be sent to Congress on Thursday.
It also will back other key features of the “reform” package for the military’s TRICARE health program first proposed last year by the Department of Defense. These include:
The task force won’t endorse every aspect of the plan floated last year to raise beneficiary costs.
For example, the task force wants higher fees and deductibles phased in over three to five years rather than two, as defense officials initially proposed, or the single-year spike in fees unveiled, with a whiff of desperation, in the 2008 defense budget.
The task force’s interim recommendations would affect what beneficiaries pay for prescription drugs and TRICARE fees. Details of the change would be released in December.
To soften the blow of higher fees and of indexing them to inflation, task force co-chair Gail Wilensky, an economist, said Congress could consider a one-time increase in military retirement pay, if deemed appropriate. But Wilensky suggested it is past time to begin to reverse the ever-widening cost differential for health care paid by working-age military retirees versus other American workers.
Besides adjusting pharmacy co-pays and TRICARE fees, the task force will endorse: “best practice” acquisition strategies for pharmacy drugs; spot audits of the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System to ensure enrollees truly are eligible for TRICARE; and closer screening of retirees and dependents for alternative health insurance which, by law, must reimburse TRICARE for care provided to any dual-eligible beneficiaries.
To comment, e-mail milupdate@aol.com, write to Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA 20120-1111 or visit www.militaryupdate.com.
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