Nimitz News

BY: Tom Philpott, Colorado Springs Gazette
12/13/2005
Defense Department officials have drafted plans to raise TRICARE enrollment fees and deductibles sharply over the next three years for military retirees under age 65 and their families, about 3 million beneficiaries.
If the changes touted by senior Defense officials are adopted, annual enrollment fees for TRICARE Prime, the military’s managed care option, would triple by October 2008 for working-age retired officers and double for enlisted retirees.
Yearly deductibles for retirees using TRICARE Standard, the fee-for-service health insurance option, would double for officers and rise by a third for enlisted personnel. Also, for the first time retirees who use TRICARE Standard would pay an enrollment fee in addition to their deductible.
Pharmacy co-payments also would be raised but for all retirees and their families, regardless of age, if they use the retail drug network or the TRICARE mail order program to buy brand name drugs on the military formulary.
The aim of these initiatives is to slow the projected rise in military health-care costs by as much as $12 billion over five years and $32 billion through fiscal 2015. This would occur, proponents argue, by having working-age retirees pay a greater share of TRICARE costs and by encouraging others to switch to their employerprovided health insurance.
Defense officials have expressed alarm over a recent migration of retirees into TRICARE and away from employer-provided health insurance.
Draft budget papers predict a “pushback” from retiree organizations. The first shot was fired Dec. 8 when the Military Coalition, a consortium of 36 service associations and veterans’ groups, sent a letter to members of the House and Senate armed service committees urging that they oppose department plans to shift a larger share of medical costs to retirees.
Congress gave military retirees better health benefits as an “offset to the unique demands and sacrifices inherent in a military career,” the coalition said.
Prime enrollment fees (now $230/$460) would be raised for retired officers to $400/$800 (individual/family) next October, to $600/$1200 a year later and to $750/$1500 by October 2008, the start of fiscal 2009. Enlisted retirees under 65 would see Prime enrollment fees climb to $300/$600 next October, to $375/$750 a year later and to $450/$900 in October 2008.
First-ever enrollment fees for TRICARE Standard would start for officers at $150/$300 (individual/family) and rise to $225/$450 by October 2007 and to $300/$600 in 2008. Enlisted retirees would pay $100/$200 next October, rising to $150/$300 the next year and to $200/$400 in 2008.
Deductibles for TRICARE Standard and Extra, now $150/$300, would climb for retired officers to $200/$400 next fall, to $250/$500 in October 2007 and to $300/$600 in 2008. Enlisted retirees would see their Standard deductible rise to $175/$350 next October, remain there for two years and rise to $200/400 in October 2008.
Co-payments under the TRICARE pharmacy program would be reshaped to discourage purchase of maintenance medicines in the more expensive retail network.