thedrifter
01-17-07, 08:53 AM
Tricare fee hikes needed, task force is told
By Gordon Lubold - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jan 17, 2007 6:09:17 EST
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.
Ellie
By Gordon Lubold - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jan 17, 2007 6:09:17 EST
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.
Ellie