Ike Puzon posted on May 06, 2011 11:50
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http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2011/05/military-wilson-money-benefits-improvements-050411w/
Wilson expects to fund benefits improvements
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday May 4, 2011 13:16:54 EDT
The chairman of the House subcommittee responsible for military benefits said Wednesday he is “very hopeful” of finding money to pay for some major benefits improvements next week when the House Armed Services Committee takes up the 2012 defense budget.
Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., chairman of the committee’s personnel panel, said he is looking for money to pay for improvements in reserve retired pay, to reduce the so-called “widow’s tax” that cuts military survivor benefits for those also receiving such benefits from the Veterans Affairs Department, and to prevent a proposed retail pharmacy co-pay increase for new prescriptions for acute ailments.
Wilson said he is not making promises for large and sweeping changes, but he believes committee aides have identified some sources of funding from within the defense budget that could be tapped to pay for modest changes in those three programs.
Wilson has the support of the panel’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Susan Davis of California, in his effort to find a way around budget rules that limit sources of funding.
“I am an optimist, and I believe we can do things,” Wilson said. “I’m not saying we can do it all, but that we can take some steps in the right direction.”
Wilson made no mention of finding money for another cause he has long supported: complete elimination of the offset in military retired pay for those also receiving veterans disability compensation.
Committee aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they have located possible sources of funding that Wilson and Davis could use, but they did not want to say more, out of fear that someone else might claim the money for another addition to the defense bill.
“Let’s just say that to get something, you have to give something, so we can find money if we are willing to cut, and we are willing to cut,” said one aide.
On reserve retired pay, Wilson and Davis are interested in expanding a 2008 change that allowed National Guard and reserve members to receive retired pay 90 days earlier than their 60th birthday for every 90 cumulative days of active duty. But the 90-for-90 rule applies only to service after Jan. 28, 2008, which Wilson sees as unfair for thousands of reservists mobilized after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
If Wilson cannot find money to make the credit for mobilization retroactive, he might be able to pay for a smaller change that would repeal a rule that the 90 days of mobilization must occur within a single fiscal year in order to be counted. There is wide support for such a fix. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., introduced a bill on Monday that would change the single-year rule.
On survivor benefits, Wilson and Davis want to address the dollar-for-dollar offset in military survivor benefits made for those also receiving dependency and indemnity compensation from VA, something that reduces benefits for about 60,000 people.
Full repeal, expected to cost $6.6 billion over 10 years, seems out of the question, but lawmakers are looking for a partial step that could involve increasing the Special Survivor Indemnity Allowance. This is a $105 monthly payment, created by Congress to partly make up for the offset, that will increase to $120 in October, and to increase again in 2012 and 2013 before expiring in 2014.
On pharmacy fees, lawmakers are concerned that a Pentagon plan to increase retail pharmacy copayments as a way to encourage people to use generic drugs through the Tricare mail-order pharmacy program could end up hurting beneficiaries.
Fee increases proposed by the Defense Department are small. Officials propose raising retail fees to $5 for generic and $12 for brand-name drugs, a jump of $2 for generics and $3 for brand-names, while eliminating the current mail-order pharmacy copay of $3 for generics and leaving unchanged the copay for brand-names, now $9.
Wilson said he worries that the price changes would discourage people from seeing a pharmacist, which could hurt their quality of medical care.
A factor in the effort to prevent the copay hikes for retail prescriptions is that retail pharmacies, especially those in military-rich communities, are likely to lose money from the change.