"Tom" <tomtk3@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:z7KdnQkgzOsrx1jYnZ2dnUVZ_r6vnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> USDR Legislative Update
>
> Date: January 17, 2007
>
>
> Tricare fee hikes needed, task force is told
>
>
> By Gordon Lubold - Staff writer
> A new task force charged with looking at the future of military health
> care may help the Pentagon to do what it failed to do last year:
convince
> an unreceptive Congress to increase some fees for Tricare users in order
> to keep the military medical system whole. The Task Force on the Future
of
> Military Healthcare, mandated by Congress, had its first substantive
> meeting Tuesday, during which its 14 members were briefed on the issues
> confronting the Defense Department's health care system.
>
>
> Senior Pentagon officials gave the task force an earful. The prognosis
for
> the health care system is grim, said David S.C. Chu, the Pentagon's
> personnel chief, unless higher fees
>
> - which would be aimed mostly at "working age" retirees, those under age
> 65 - aren't implemented, and soon. The Pentagon is already trying to
> increase efficiencies within the system and implement better business
> practices to save money. But that won't do it alone, Chu told the group.
>
>
> "It's our conclusions that the current business practices do not lead to
a
> sustainable benefit over the long term," he said If Congress doesn't
allow
> the Pentagon to "rebalance" the ratio of costs paid by the department
and
> by beneficiaries, and charge beneficiaries more for the services they
use,
> then the health care that all military members and dependents receive
will
> suffer, he said.
>
>
> Last March, Chu said the percentage of health care costs covered by
> beneficiaries had shrunk from 27 percent in 1995 to a current level of
> about 12 percent. At that time, the Pentagon was putting forth an
> ambitious program to fix the long-term viability of the Tricare program,
> considered by defense officials to be one of the best health care
programs
> in the nation.
>
>
> The thrust of the proposal was to increase some Tricare enrollment fees
> and deductibles
> for retirees under age 65. Defense officials argued that the fee
structure
> has not been significantly changed in more than a decade - even as
health
> care costs have consistently shot upward - and that the only way to
> continue offering a high level of service is to make those changes.
>
>
> But the plan drew sharp criticism from both Republicans and Democrats on
> Capitol Hill, who did not want to tinker with fees, and the proposal was
> dropped. Chu acknowledged that politics played a role in the Pentagon's
> failure to articulate its message properly, and that they had introduced
> the proposal at an already fractious time in national politics, as
debate
> raged about the war in Iraq.
>
>
> "There was a deep reluctance to make a change," Chu said. Pentagon
> officials won't acknowledge if they'll be back again with a similar
> proposal when President Bush's fiscal 2008 defense budget is released
Feb.
> 5. But if so, the task force, which Chu said can play a role in building
> consensus on this and other issues, may help grease the skids in
Congress.
> For now, the group is simply learning the challenges facing the
Pentagon,
> members said.
>
>
> The group will meet again Feb. 6.
>
>
>
>
> Noel Pritzl
> Web Site Director, USDR
> (931) 648-4292
> Angler88@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
|
