Senate rejects proposed hike in Tricare fees

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Senate rejects proposed hike in Tricare fees
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 27, 2008 22:03:02 EST

The Senate Armed Services Committee has rejected a Pentagon proposal to increase health insurance costs without even seeing the details, but is now worried if there will be enough money in the 2009 defense budget to fully cover health care costs.

Rejection of the proposal to Tricare Standard and Tricare Prime costs and to raise copayments for prescription drugs — something the Defense Department assumes will generate about $1.2 billion in savings — was first disclosed in a Tuesday letter from committee leaders to the Senate Budget Committee.

About $500 million of the savings would come from charging higher fees for military retirees under the age of 65 and their families enrolled in Tricare. The remaining $700 million in savings would come from higher copayments for prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies, something that would affect active-duty family members, reservists and their families and retirees and their families There also would be a modest fee for older retirees covered by the Tricare for Life plan

The letter, signed by committee chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and ranking Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, asks the budget committee to provide $611.1 billion in new budget authority for the Defense Department for fiscal year 2009, which begins Oct. 1. This is the amount requested by the Bush administration, and includes $70 billion in a so-called bridge fund that would partly cover the 2009 costs of continued military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The budget committee, chaired by Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., is in the process of preparing a resolution spelling out revenue and spending guidelines.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/military_tricarefees_022708/