Bill to limit Tricare fee hikes gains support in Senate

Concerned that the Pentagon's plans to increase out-of-pocket healthcare costs would place financial burdens on military retirees, six senators have signed onto a bipartisan bill to curb the proposed fee hikes.

Sens. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., introduced the legislation shortly before Congress began its spring recess late last week, despite repeated arguments from Pentagon officials that raising fees for military retirees under age 65, effective Oct. 1, would save $11 billion over the next five years. Under the legislation, the Pentagon could not raise fees for participants in its TRICARE military health system beyond the rate of growth in retiree pay.

A vocal coalition of military organizations opposing the Pentagon plan estimates it could cost some retirees an additional $100 a month.

"Especially in a time of war, it is unthinkable that the administration would even consider dramatically increasing healthcare costs for those who have sacrificed for our country," Lautenberg said in a statement.

Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, one of the bill's co-sponsors, said on the floor last week that "it is essential that we honor our commitment and investigate all available options for funding our military health care system, rather than strap the bill on the backs of those who already have paid for their health insurance with their blood, sweat and tears."

The Senate bill differs slightly from legislation introduced in the House last month that would essentially thwart the Pentagon's plan to raise fees and require Capitol Hill's blessing before further increasing TRICARE costs. The House bill has 171 Republican and Democratic co-sponsors.

A Lautenberg aide called the Senate bill a more reasonable approach that would still help offset the military's burgeoning healthcare bills. But John Class, deputy director of government affairs at the Military Officers Association of America, said the Senate's measure "makes it a little too easy for DOD to go ahead and automatically raise [fees] each year."

Nonetheless, MOAA and three other organizations have written Lautenberg expressing their support for his bill. "We were extremely happy that at least there's something in both the House and Senate on this," said Class.

The National Military Family Association wrote recently that: "The proposal to raise TRICARE fees by exorbitant amounts has resonated throughout the beneficiary population. Families see the proposals as a concentrated effort by DOD to change their earned entitlement of healthcare into an insurance plan."

But Pentagon officials have defended their TRICARE proposal at a slew of public hearings and in private meetings with lawmakers. The military has not raised TRICARE premiums and other fees in 11 years, despite hefty increases in healthcare costs.

"We worked together to develop what we believe is a thoughtful proposal that has great merit," William Winkenwerder, assistant Defense secretary for health affairs, said in a recent interview. "We look forward to working together with the Congress to move forward."

Winkenwerder added that the military has to make substantial changes in TRICARE fees now, before health care costs escalate any further. "The problem will not get any easier a year from now or two years from now," he said. The "magnitude of change that would need to take place would be even greater."