The Defense Budget for 2014 opens up all-out assault on military health care benefits, seeking higher costs and new fees from beneficiaries. Here are the proposals: TRICARE Prime – The current family enrollment fee of $539 for working-age retirees (under age 65) would increase next year to equal 2.95 percent of the individual’s gross retired pay. But for 2014 the fee would be subject to an annual minimum, or floor, of $548 and a ceiling of $750. The fee would be raised to 3.3 percent of gross retired pay in 2015, 3.65 percent in 2016; until reaching 4 percent of gross retired pay in 2018 with a floor of $594 and ceiling of $1226. Annual Adjustments – After 2018, all TRICARE enrollment fees, floors and ceilings, and deductibles for retirees would climb yearly by the same percentage increase of cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for military retired pay to keep pace with inflation. TRICARE For Life – Beneficiaries 65 and older can (and most do) use TRICARE for Life as a supplement to Medicare. Officials said a comparable individual policy in 2009 would cost $2100 in the private sector, so, they reason, older military retirees should at least pay a small enrollment fee. The fee would equal one half of one percentage point of gross retired pay in 2014; one percent in 2015; 1.5 percent in 2016, and two percent in 2017 and in 2018. But the fees would have ceilings: no more $150 a year in 2014; no more than $300 in 2015, $450 in 2016, $600 in 2017 and no more than $618 in 2018. Flag officers would face higher ceilings. After 2017, these fees would be adjusted by the percentage of retiree COLAs.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 18:17:26 +0000
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