This is PMOAANET Legislative & Retiree Affairs Advisory 09-08 for Pensacola Chapter MOAA members, friends, and interested parties. This message has multiple protected addressees. PMOAANET is an official function of the Pensacola Chapter, MOAA. Recipients are encouraged to pass this advisory along to anyone who might benefit from the contents. While this service is extended occasionally to non-MOAA members of the Military Community as a courtesy, PMOAANET can not undertake exchanges with non-members.
If you joined us in contacting your Senators about Medicare/Tricare you can feel really good about it. Yesterday we won one: you must know by now that the Senate voted for a fix to the cut in Medicare/Tricare payments to doctors (that was actually effective July 1st). Probably the Administration is not going to be pleased but the House vote was veto proof and it appears that so is the Senate's, in view of a number of changed votes. Among other things that suggests that your voices were heard. HOWEVER...
Before you relax... we must ask you to redeploy this weekend! The Defense Authorization bill as so far developed has a lot of good things in it for the Military Community. However, several long-standing objectives of ours are not addressed and will have to be advanced as Amendments, in Senate deliberations scheduled to start next week, or they're dead for another year. These are: the SBP-DIC offset (no, this was not really fixed last year), establishment of principles in law for adjustment of military health care fees (making Tricare fees/copays/health care for the Military Community a Congressional responsibility), full concurrent receipt for all entitled (rather than the several approaches now in effect), and a provision to make retroactive to 09-11-2001 the reduction of Reserve retirement age by 90 days for every 90 days activated.
If you can access MOAA's web site, follow the cues to Legislative Action > Action Alerts > Legislative Action Center > Support Key Amendments and the system will do your work for you. Otherwise you can develop your own input to request our Senators to do the following:
Work to ensure these Amendments are included in the Senate Defense Authorization bill.
E-mail for Sen. Sessions, go to his web site for an e-mail form: www.sessions.senate.gov/email/contact.cfm
E-mail for Sens. Martinez, Nelson and Shelby: Mel_Martinez@martinez.senate.gov Bill@billneslon.senate.gov senator@shelby.senate.gov
If you would rather phone: MOAA's toll-free Capitol Hill Hot Line is 1-866-272-6622, and ask the Capitol operator to put you through to your Senator's office.
(Note for PMOAA AL-01 members: Your Congressional delegation will be far more responsive to your communication than to mine.)
Owen Englander
This is PMOAANET Legislative & Retiree Affairs Advisory 08-08 for Pensacola Chapter MOAA members, friends, and interested parties. This message has multiple protected addressees. PMOAANET is an official function of the Pensacola Chapter, MOAA. Recipients are encouraged to pass this advisory along to anyone who might benefit from the contents. While this service is extended occasionally to non-MOAA members of the military community as a courtesy, PMOAANET can not undertake exchanges with non-members.
Advisory 07-08 asked that PMOAANET subscribers press their Senators, having failed to move on S. 3101, to support concurrence in H.R. 6331. Congress' failure to act on the Medicare/Tricare cut before heading home for a very long weekend is addressed in the July edition of The BEACON. To summarize the last two weeks: the Administration promised to veto any Medicare/Tricare fix that sought offsetting funds from cuts in payments to insurers who operate the Medicare Advantage Program (for which the government pays up to 17% more than it pays under Medicare); the House passed H.R. 6331 on a veto-proof vote and adjourned; the Senate could not move on S.3101 or a compromise bill of its own and tried to go with the House bill but failed to muster the 60 votes needed.
So having punted on this one last year, delaying the inevitable from January to July, the Congress and the Administration could not find a way to make the offsetting funds issue go away. Although some legislators have tried to sweeten the pot by adding a bit to the payment scheme, in addition to removing the 10.6% cut, I think we would be pleased simply to retain status quo until a permanent fix can be worked out.
We are well aware that trying to increase entitlement programs is always hard. They are capped unless cuts to other entitlements --or tax increases-- are identified as offsets. So committees sponsoring such legislation are in a rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul situation. But Congress regularly waives these provisions when they want to: the waivers usually turn up in connection with tax bills or “emergency” supplemental spending bills. Some of us think this is an "emergency." We are also aware that civilians and military retirees on Tricare-For-Life will see a healthy increase in Medicare Part B premiums in January. Worst case: it will cost more for health insurance but doctors may be less willing to see us.
How they voted: Reps. Miller and Bonner voted for H.R. 6331. Senator Nelson voted for cloture on S.3101 and H.R. 6331. Sens. Martinez, Sessions and Shelby voted against cloture on S.3101 and H.R. 6331.
Even if you have called or written or e-mailed already, what you need to do is find the time this weekend to send your legislators an e-mail along the following lines:
I am extremely disappointed that Congress recessed without fixing the Medicare/Tricare payment cuts before they took effect July 1. While there may yet be a bit of breathing room before Tricare implements, Medicare will delay processing new claims dated from July 1st only until July 15th, which leaves Congress only a week to get new legislation signed into law.
I want my legislators to put political and party considerations aside and pass a fix that can be signed into law immediately. It's long past time to stop playing political games with Medicare and Tricare beneficiaries' health care access.
You can cut-and-paste but, by all means, personalize your message as you will.
E-mail for Reps. Bonner and Miller, and Sen. Sessions, go to their web sites for an e-mail form: www.bonner.house.gov, or www.jeffmiller.house.gov, or www.sessions.senate.gov/email/contact.cfm
E-mail for Sens. Martinez, Nelson and Shelby: Mel_Martinez@martinez.senate.gov Bill@billneslon.senate.gov senator@shelby.senate.gov
If you would rather phone early next week: MOAA's toll-free Capitol Hill Hot Line is 1-866-272-6622, and ask the Capitol operator to put you through to your legislator's office. If the MOAA hot line is busy, use 800-833-6354 or 800-846-6225.
(Note for PMOAA AL-01 members: Your Congressional delegation will be far more responsive to your communication than to mine.)Owen Englander