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TREA WASHINGTON UPDATE AUGUST 21, 2009
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TREA WASHINGTON UPDATE FOR AUGUST 21, 2009
Congress remained out of session this week with most members back in their home districts and states hosting “town halls” to hear from their constituents. Several of these have attracted national attention because of their contentious nature over the issue of reform of health care insurance.
TREA continues to monitor the health care proposals very carefully. As we have stated in recent legislative updates, there still is not a single bill in either house of Congress that can be accurately described as “the” definitive proposal. There are three bills in the House of Representatives and two in the Senate. In addition, there seemed to be a major shift in the Administrations’ position on a government-run insurance option earlier this week, but as the week drew to a close they appeared to back-track on that. Then near the end of the week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that he may divide the proposals into different bills and pass some of them using a special procedure that only requires a simple majority in the Senate, thus ending the need to gain bi-partisan approval in the Senate.
The point in reciting all of this is to again reiterate that the issue of reform of health care insurance is still in process and nothing is yet set in concrete as to what the final bill may look like.
2) TREA Supports Concurrent Receipt and Other Important Provisions of NDAA
3) TRICARE Obtains Lower Prices on Retail Prescription Drugs
4) VA Reaching Out to Suppliers, Contractors
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Click here for a Printable Version of this Update
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1) Congressman Buyer Concerned About How National Health Insurance Reform Legislation Could Affect Veterans - As we have told you in the last couple of updates, the President has tried to assure military personnel and veterans that their eligibility for VA and TRICARE health care will not be affected by any changes that are made. However, no commitments regarding TRICARE fee increases have been made by the Administration or by any members of Congress.
In addition, some members of Congress are saying that there are still problems involving VA health care as far as at least one of the bills in the House of Representatives is concerned. While much of what is being said by both sides can be considered as political posturing, any warning concerning possible problems for either VA or military health care is being taken seriously by TREA and we want to make you aware of such concern. This is a recent statement put out by the Ranking Member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Steve Buyer:
Ranking Member of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, Steve Buyer, recently responded to President’s Obama comments at the National Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) in Phoenix, AZ.
Obama made the following comments in regard to how the national healthcare reform effort would affect veteran’s healthcare:
“And since there’s been so much misinformation out there about health insurance reform, let me say this. One thing that reform won’t change is veterans’ health care. No one is going to take away your benefits, that is the plain and simple truth.”
Buyer responded, “What President Obama did not say is how the proposed health care reform bill could subject veterans to a 2.5% individual penalty tax for failure to have ‘acceptable coverage’ as required by the bill.”
“Despite what the President has said, the bill could still negatively affect veterans and has not been fixed,” continued Buyer. “I will continue to work to ensure that the bill is amended so veterans could not be subject to this tax or adversely affected by any of the other provisions in the bill.”
2) TREA Supports Concurrent Receipt and Other Important Provisions of NDAA - This week TREA’s Legislative Director, Larry Madison, met with a staff member of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s and discussed the health care issue. In addition, he met with a member of Senator John Kerry’s staff and discussed issues related to reserve component retirees. He was told that conference committee discussions about the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will begin in a couple of weeks, making next week the last one to contact Senators prior to their deliberations.
In addition, Madison, together with TREA’s Washington Office Executive Director, Deirdre Holleman, reviewed more than 100 provisions of the NDAA that are of importance to TREA members, as well as all military retirees, active duty personnel, and members of the Reserve components, and the survivors of military personnel. A few of the main provisions we support, and that are in accord with TREA resolutions are as follows:
Section 660: Include service after 9-11 as service qualifying for reduction in Reserve retirement age. We support the Senate provision. The House has no similar provision.
Division D, Section 121: Expansion of eligibility for concurrent receipt of military retired pay and veterans’ disability compensation. This would phase out the disability offset for Chapter 61 disability retirees by FY2014, but funding is available only for the first year (rated 90-100% or unemployable with less than 20 years of service.) We support the House provision. There is no similar Senate provision.
Section 422: Repeal of delayed one-time future COLA. This repeals section 1002 of the 2009 NDAA. We support the House provision. There is no similar Senate provision.
Section 652: Repeal of the reduction of survivor annuities under SBP by DIC. We support the Senate provision. There is no similar House provision.
Section 706: Sense of the Senate on military retiree health benefits. Expresses the view that unique military health benefits are an essential offset to arduous service conditions. Many DoD health costs are driven by readiness needs, and DoD needs to focus on cost-saving measures other than beneficiary fee hikes. We support the Senate provision. There is no similar House provision.
We urge you to contact the members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and let them know you support those provisions. Each of them is a member of the NDAA conference committee and they need to hear from you. Be sure to refer to the specific section of the NDAA as listed above. The members are as follows:
DEMOCRATS
Carl Levin (Michigan) 202-224-6221
Chairman
Edward M. Kennedy (Massachusetts) 202-224-4543
Robert C. Byrd (West Virginia) 202-224-3954
Joseph I. Lieberman (Connecticut) 202-224-4041
Daniel K. Akaka (Hawaii) 202-224-6361
Bill Nelson (Florida) 202-224-5274
Ben Nelson (Nebraska) 202-224-6551
Evan Bayh (Indiana) 202-224-5623
Jim Webb (Virginia) 202-224-4024
Claire McCaskill (Missouri) 202-224-6154
Mark Udall (Colorado) 202-224-5941
Kay R. Hagan (North Carolina) 202-224-6342
Mark Begich (Alaska) 202-224-3004
Roland W. Burris (Illinois) 202-224-2854
REPUBLICANS
John McCain (Arizona) 202-224-2235
Ranking Member
James M. Inhofe (Oklahoma) 202-224-4721
Jeff Sessions (Alabama) 202-224-4124
Saxby Chambliss (Georgia) 202-224-3521
Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) 202-224-5972
John Thune (South Dakota) 202-224-2321
Mel Martinez (Florida) 202-224-3041
Roger F. Wicker (Mississippi) 202-224-6253
Richard Burr (North Carolina) 202-224-3154
David Vitter (Louisiana) 202-224-4623
Susan M. Collins (Maine 202-224-2523
The House Armed Services Committee has not yet named its members of the Conference Committee but the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is Representative Ike Skelton 202-225-2876; the Ranking Member is Representative Howard P. “Buck” McKeon 202-225-1956. We expect they will both be on the Conference Committee.
3) TRICARE Obtains Lower Prices on Retail Prescription Drugs - The Defense Department is projected to reduce spending by $1.67 billion on prescription medications sold in retail pharmacies in fiscal year 2010, following the full implementation of Section 703 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2008.
“These are significant savings to the Department of Defense and are crucial to our effort to slow the rapid growth of pharmacy costs,” said Rear Adm. Thomas McGinnis, chief of TRICARE pharmaceutical operations.
For the past several years the Department of Defense (DoD) has paid commercial rates for prescription drugs purchased in the TRICARE retail pharmacy network. However, DoD is included in the 1992 Veteran’s Healthcare Act as one of the “big four” government agencies entitled to federal prices when it purchases pharmaceuticals for its beneficiaries.
DoD currently receives federal ceiling prices, the maximum price that can be charged for brand name drugs, in military treatment facilities and the TRICARE Mail Order Pharmacy. Through authority provided in Section 703 of the 2008 NDAA and the “final rule” implementing the regulation, DoD will now get these same discounts in the TRICARE retail pharmacy network. The final rule was effective May 26, 2009.
Controlling the growth in pharmacy benefit costs for both the beneficiaries and the government is an ongoing process for TRICARE. Beneficiaries can sign up to get e-alerts for updates to their pharmacy benefit through the “email Updates” link on the front page of http://www.tricare.mil.
4) VA Reaching Out to Suppliers, Contractors - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is strengthening its working relationship with the private-sector to improve service for Veterans, cut costs for taxpayers and enhance the operation of federal employees, VA’s Deputy Secretary W. Scott Gould said recently.
“VA is committed to our partnership with industry over the long term,” Gould told a VA-sponsored forum with suppliers Aug. 13. “We are committed to acquisition reform. And we are committed to the Veterans we serve. We can do none of this without a strong, healthy partnership with the private sector.”
Last year, VA purchased more than $19 billion in services, material and supplies. About $1.6 billion was with businesses owned by service-disabled Veterans. Another $400 million in VA contracts went to other Veteran-owned businesses.
Gould addressed a VA conference with suppliers in northern Virginia to obtain the private sector’s input on measures needed to transform VA’s procurement process to meet the needs of Veterans in the 21st century.
“We will synchronize acquisitions with our IT, human resources and financial management functions to advance a high-performance culture where suppliers are not viewed as adversaries, where open communications are the rule, and clearly-articulated requirements are not the exception,” he added.
Gould, who serves as VA’s chief operating officer, noted the Department is hiring over 350 contracting and procurement specialists. VA’s Acquisitions Academy, the first of its kind among federal civilian agencies, received the 2009 Acquisitions Excellence Award from the Office of Management and Budget.
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