CHARGE Association

ROA partners with several organizations in its legislative efforts. This month, the National Association of Uniformed Services (NAUS) is spotlighted. Like ROA, it is a non-profit, non-partisan organization, chartered "to support legislation to uphold the security of the United States, sustain the morale of the Armed Forces, and provide fair and equitable consideration for all members of the uniformed services: active, reserve, National Guard, veteran, retired, and their spouses, widows and widowers and maintain a strong national defense."

An extract of some NAUS 2005 legislative goals, which ROA helped to define, includes:

Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay (CRDP)

Goal: To pursue legislation that would provide full concurrent receipt to all active-duty and Reserve Component disabled retirees regardless of disability rating or cause, including Section 61 and Individual Unemployable.

Pay and Compensation

Goal: To ensure that we maintain a strong National Defense by maintaining a high quality, all-volunteer three based on competitive pay for its active force and inflation protected retired pay for its retired force.

Objectives:

* Ensure that annual enlisted military pay raises equal or exceed the Employment Cost Index (ECI).

* Reform the military, pay scales to more accurately/equitably reflect increased responsibility in relation to the overall service mission. (Targeted Pay Raises).

* Increase rates of special pay/special duty assignment pay

* Provide monetary awards for valor for all components, to include National Guard and Reserve.

* Apply the same full payments of flying, hazardous duty, and other special pays to Reservists as currently paid to active duty members.

Reserve Components

Goal: To closely monitor the effect of operations tempo on Reserve personnel and push for improvements that benefit the servicemember.

Goal: To develop and improve relationships with employers of the Guard and Reserve. Support tax credits for employers of Reserve Component members.

Goal: To develop and improve benefits for the Guardsman and Reservist

Objective:

* Pay employers to maintain health coverage (e.g., Cobra) on recalled Reservists

* Provide family continuity of health care

* Ensure congressional study of compensation protection for Reservists

* Restore the full tax deductibility of non-reimbursable expense

* Continue GI Bill benefits of Reservists who involuntarily are transferred from pay to non-pay, if a satisfactory qualifying year is maintained

* Permit activated Reservists to defer repayment of certain federal student loans

* Extend/make permanent for SELRES VA Home Loan Guarantees, which expires in 2007

Goal: To encourage Total Force Parity in Benefits for the Guardsman and Reservist

Objective:

* Seek parity of benefits between Active Duty and Reserve

* Remove inactive point ceiling for duration of the Declaration of Emergency

* Authorize single-rate basic allowance for housing

* Charge uniform loan fees to qualified members on SELRES and active duty veterans for home loans

* Ensure consistency between regions of how TRICARE coverage is provided for mobilized Reservists and families

* Continue to improve the new permanent TRICARE health-care benefits for drilling Guard and Reserve forces

* Remove Reserve pay for unemployment compensation calculation uniformly across all states

Goal: To improve the benefits of the Retired Guardsman and Reservist

Objective:

* Correct legislation to include gray-area retirees in Long-Term Care insurance

* Support eligibility for deceased gray-area retirees to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery

Goal: To push for improvements to common Active Duty and Reserve issues

Objective:

* Adjust ITEMPO formula based on lessons learned during the war and from roles played by Reserves in contributory support

* Review the financial protections covered by the Service-members Civil Relief Act

* Support further legislation protecting military absentee balloting

Survivor Benefits Plan (SBP) And Survivor Improvements

Goal: To immediately implement the law providing for a paid-up Survivor Benefit Plan and to improve the overall survivor benefit

Goal: To provide for concurrent receipt of Dependency and Indemnity Compensation and the Survivor Benefit Plan

Goal: To improve the remarriage provisions for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) and Allow DIC widows to remarry after the age of 55 (not 57) without losing their entitlement to DIC

Uniformed Services Health Care

Goal: To ensure comprehensive, lifelong medical and dental care for all uniformed service beneficiaries regardless of age, status or location.

Objective:

* Promote adequate funding of the Defense Health Program Budget to provide access to the military health care system for all uniformed services beneficiaries

* TRICARE Coverage

* Improve the TRICARE program benefits in cost and coverage

* Increase Medicare/TRICARE provider payments and enhance the program to ensure quality providers' participation

* Protect the elimination of the preauthorization and non-availability statements for TRICARE Standard beneficiaries (include psychiatric inpatient care)

* Continue to require DoD to convey benefit information to all standard beneficiaries

* Restore "coordination of benefits" for TRICARE Standard claims

* Eliminate the 115 percent billing limit when TRICARE Standard is second payer

* Direct that TRICARE and TFL cover a full range of preventative health screenings, to include physicals

* Reinstate TRICARE benefits for remarried widows when the second marriage ends

* Maintain a comprehensive uniform pharmacy benefit

* Stop or minimize any future co-payment increases.

* Closely monitor the movement of current TIER II (formulary) drugs to TIER III (non-formulary).

* Educate providers and beneficiaries on the benefit, genetic substitution policy, limitations on amounts dispensed and update the formulary listing.

* Seek legislation for continued improvement in the health care for National Guard and Reserve Components.

* Closely monitor DoD efforts to replace military healthcare personnel with civilian health-care personnel.

* Medicare

* Waive Medicare Part B late enrollment penalties for all TRICARE for Life-eligible beneficiaries.

* End cuts to Medicare providers reimbursements to ensure ample access for military retirees using their TFL benefit.

* Allow Medicare reimbursement to be tested on a fee-for-service basis. This test would allow Medicare-eligible military beneficiaries to keep their standard Medicare benefit, and when using the MTFs on a space-available basis, present their Medicare card to the MTF. The MTF would bill Medicare as other providers do except that it would be on a discounted basis to reflect the lower cost of care provided by the MTFs.

* Increase coordination in health-care delivery for military retirees between the Department of Veterans Affairs and the DoD. Do not allow forced choice.

* Move full funding of the under--65 retiree and retiree family member health care from DoD to the entitlements portion of the federal budget where it will no longer have to compete for funding with planes, ships and tanks.

* Expand, fully fund and promote an upgraded dental service for active duty, retirees, Reservists, their families and survivors.

* Extend TRICARE coverage to all retirees worldwide; authorize FEHBP as an option for all retired military beneficiaries.

* Support Puerto Rico being designated CONUS for TRICARE coverage

* Support legislation that further improves the TRICARE for Life benefit for the most-senior retirees.

* Improve retention of military physicians and nurses; restore compensation parity with Department of Veterans Affairs; and include bonuses in computation of retired pay.

* Maintain support for the Uniformed Services Family Health Plan (USFHP) and continue to support open enrollment for all who are eligible into USFHP.

* Maintain support for the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USUHS). Support an active conservation program to modernize and improve the efficiency and cost effectiveness of the USUHS Campus.

Veterans Health Care

Goal: To ensure adequate health care funding, so all eligible veterans are provided comprehensive medical care in accordance with established access standards at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Objectives:

* Ensure adequate resources to provide quality and accessible medical care services from VA for all eligible veterans by providing full funding through modifications to the current budget and appropriations process by using mandatory funding or some other change in the process that achieves the desired goal.

* Authorize Medicate subvention to allow VA to collect and retain Medicare dollars for treatment of Medicare-eligible VA patients.

* Allow VA to retain third-party and Medicare reimbursements without offset from regularly appropriated funds.

* Modernize the VA healthcare system and establish additional accessible community-based treatment facilities.

* Continue working to enhance coordination of DoD and VA health data on a service-member's deployment, occupational exposures and health conditions that will allow VA to provide the best possible health care and benefits for veterans.

* Make all DVA facilities preferred subcontractors for TRICARE services.

* Ensure that CHAMPVA recipients, CHAMPVA survivors and those over age 65 are included in the VA Medicare subvention legislation.

* Study the feasibility of converting unused DVA facilities to long-term care facilities.

* Ensure a fair evaluation and subsequent treatment of all medical conditions that result from the military service environment.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Reserve Officers Association of the United States
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group