11 Jan 2008
Congress approved some significant improvements for the military community in the last year, but left an important tax bill hanging when they adjourned last year. We need your help in urging Congress to complete final action on H.R. 3997, the Defenders of Freedom Tax Relief Act. The bill provides significant tax relief and protections for military members and their families.
Click here to send a message to your legislators.
Now that Congress has approved a modest reserve retirement upgrade, what is MOAA planning next on this issue?
The Beneficiary Advisory Panel recently met to review DoD proposals to move more drugs to the $22 copay level.
MOAA's President, VADM Norb Ryan, Jr., USN (Ret), joined other association leaders in meeting with newly confirmed Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake on Thursday.
MOAA is looking for individuals to share their story to help illustrate to Congress the remaining inequities in concurrent receipt. Would you like to help make a difference?
MOAA and our partners in The Military Coalition have been fighting for more than six years to improve the reserve retirement system to better match "operational reserve" service demands for today's National Guard and Reserve warriors. The new FY2008 Defense Authorization Act includes an important "first step" on reserve retirement. Much more must be done, but let's not downplay the significance of this breakthrough.
The new legislation includes language sponsored by Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) that lowers the reserve retirement age below age 60 by three months for each cumulative 90 days of active duty served on "contingency operation" orders. The activation orders, whether involuntary or not, must indicate a contingency operation. The activated member need not be deployed to qualify. Reservists could retire as early as age 50 with 10 years' qualifying active duty service, if otherwise qualified for a reserve retirement.
The pending change, however, is prospective only. That means only active duty service after the date the defense bill is signed into law (hopefully, later this month) will be credited toward reducing the retirement age. A second concern is that reservists who qualify under the new law to retire before age 60 would not be entitled to TRICARE until they reach age 60.
The President issued a pocket veto of the defense bill just after Christmas because of an unrelated provision about lawsuits against the current Iraq government. Lawmakers are expected to resolve this issue and resubmit it for the President's signature within the next few weeks.
MOAA believes strongly that the new retirement upgrade doesn't go far enough. But it's at least a first-ever "beachhead" on this issue. Now that Congress has explicitly recognized the obsolescence of a retirement system built 50 years ago for a different force and the Cold War, we will drive toward comprehensive reform until it's achieved.
The next step is to make the "90 days retirement credit for 90 days active service" change retroactive to cover active service in the post-9/11 era. Since then, more than 600,000 Guard and Reserve warriors have served contingency operation active duty. More than 142,000 have served multiple tours. The nation simply can't ignore that service and sacrifice in building a fairer reserve retirement system.
For the longer run, MOAA continues to support proposals that would establish age and service criteria for determining the reserve retirement age. One approach championed by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) a few years ago would permit reservists with at least 20 years qualifying service to retire early by one year for every two years of longevity service past 20 years. A variant on this concept is to use reserve retirement point thresholds in determining a reduced retirement age.
Proposals that would simply change the reserve retirement age from 60 to 55, including H.R. 690 (Rep. Jim Saxton, R-NJ) and S. 1243 (Sen. John Kerry, D-MA), are still in play and MOAA supports them. But it's more likely going forward that Congress will tie additional service, including operational service, to any broad plan to lower the reserve retirement age. MOAA believes strongly that such proposals must include TRICARE eligibility. It makes no sense to provide access to TRICARE (TRICARE Reserve Select) for Selected Reserve families and then cut off that coverage for "gray area" and other pre-age 60 reserve retirees.
The evolution of the reserve forces from a strategic to an operational role
means more service on active duty, more time away from home, and diminished
civilian career prospects. Now that Congress has begun to recognize these
realities, it's time to take more aggressive steps to improve the reserve
retirement system.
On January 10, the DoD Beneficiary Advisory Panel (BAP) met to review DoD proposals to elevate some cardiovascular disorder, prostate, and immune disease medications to the third tier, or $22 copay level.
In the cardiovascular disorder category, the BAP concurred with keeping Zebeta, Coreg, Toprol XL, and Lopressor at $3 or $9 copays.
Within the prostate medications, DoD proposed a "prior authorization" requirement which would require beneficiaries to try Uroxatral before Hytrin, Cardura, or Flomax unless they had a current prescription within the last 180 days. Even after trying Uroxatral without success, a "medical necessity" statement from a physician is still needed for Flomax or beneficiaries would have to pay a $22 copay. The BAP agreed to the prior authorization requirement but urged DoD to move Flomax back to a lower copay.
The targeted immunomodulatory biologics (TIB) -- Enbrel, Kineret, Humira, Raptiva, and Amevive -- are used to treat various forms of arthritis, psoriasis, Chron's Disease, and ulcerative colitis. By a one-vote margin, the BAP concurred with moving Enbrel and Kineret to the third tier but recommended delaying implementation for 120 days to allow time for patients to consult with their doctor and a rheumatologist.
The BAP agreed to move Exforge, a combination drug for high blood pressure, and the contraceptive Lybrel to the third tier with a 60-day implementation period. However, the BAP did not concur with moving Vyvnase, used to treat ADHD, to a $22 copay. This is the first case where DoD has recommended third tier status when there was no clinically meaningful therapeutic disadvantage or cost advantage.
The BAP concurred with DoD's recommendations to place the generic version of the hypertension drug Norvasc back on the formulary at a lower copay than the current $22 price. All recommendations will be submitted to the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) for final decision.
Beneficiaries can use the Formulary Search Tool located on TRICARE's pharmacy web site for additional information about medications, their availability and cost.
Dr. James Peake has wasted no time reaching out to military and veterans groups after his confirmation as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Secretary Peake is a decorated Vietnam veteran and former Surgeon General of the Army. He is the first physician and flag officer to serve in the post.
MOAA President VADM Norb Ryan and four other association leaders were invited to meet with the Secretary over an informal breakfast on Jan. 10. Secretary Peake said he intends to meet regularly with service organization leaders for feedback and insight on VA programs. Peake said his priorities include improving the transition of all service men and women into the VA system, upgrading the claims-processing system, and improving information sharing between the military services and the VA.
Admiral Ryan pledged the support of MOAA's 370,000 members and 409 chapters and told the Secretary that MOAA wants to be a "force multiplier" in helping VA and its dedicated employees accomplish its vital mission. He commended the secretary on recent VA-DoD cooperation on wounded warrior transition issues and urged "institutionalization" of those new protocols so they don't fade when the leaders who drove them turn over next year when a new administration arrives.
We congratulate Secretary Peake and look forward to continuing a mutually productive working relationship with his office and senior staff.
MOAA and The Military Coalition have won significant progress in reducing or eliminating the deduction of VA disability compensation from earned military retired pay for hundreds of thousands of disabled retirees. But significant inequities still exist.
The FY2008 Defense Authorization Act authorizes concurrent receipt for members medically forced from service before completing 20 years, but only for those with combat - or operations-related disabilities. Members with non-combat injuries rated 50% or more disabling by the VA will have the disability phased out over the next few years, but those with 40% or lower non-combat disabilities still must fund their own disability compensation by forfeiting a dollar of earned retired pay for each dollar received from the VA.
In the course of fighting to correct these inequities, we're often contacted by reporters who want to talk to a disabled retiree in their local area who's affected by them. Too often, we can't offer them a local name. To help tell the story and highlight the remaining inequities, MOAA would like to compile a roster of affected disabled retirees who are willing to talk to newspaper, television or radio reporters about the problem.
If you're in one of the following categories, please send an e-mail to legis@moaa.org providing your name, retired grade and service, address, and phone number, along with a brief (250 words or less please) description of your service-connected disability and how it was caused. We're particularly looking for stories of members in one of two specific categories:
A 100% disabled retiree who was medically retired due to non-combat related injuries with 18 or 19 years of service; and
A 40% disabled retiree with a non-combat related disability with 20 or more years of service.
Please understand that, depending on the volume of e-mails received, we may not be able to individually answer every one, but we will keep your information on file for possible media contacts and thank you in advance for your participation. We will contact you for a specific authorization before giving your name to any reporter.
General Note to All Veterans:
CONGRESSIONAL MAIL: The only way veterans can have an impact on any issue is to communicate with the congressmen of their state/distinct. A Congressman's office normally screens out communications from anyone who is not a constituent. Many of our congressional representatives or key people on their staff do not understand military life nor military benefits and entitlements. They need to be educated not vilified because their point of view is inaccurate or may not correspond with yours. Your congressman's staff will be opening it and reading it along with the thousands of others on various subjects. Most are machine produced and thus receive very little attention as does email. If you do not get the attention of the staff reader it will never get to the Congressman's desk to influence him in his decision on any vote. Some tips on more effective ways to get your Congressman’s attention are:
You can locate your congressman at http://www.house.gov/writerep by entering your zip code. Your senator can be located at http://www.senate.gov