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This is TROA’s legislative update for Friday, May 3, 2002
Issue 1: Sample Uniform Formulary Letter
The last two legislative updates have highlighted TROA’s concerns about DoD’s uniform formulary proposal (and its $22 copayment for non-formulary drugs) announced in the April 11 Federal Register. The public may comment on the proposal for a period of 60 days (until June 11). The final plan won’t be implemented before next spring or summer.
We have encouraged TROA members and others to exercise their rights during this comment period and write TRICARE to express their opinions about the plan. Many legislative update subscribers have asked whether TROA will put out a sample comment letter.
You can find a sample letter on TROA’s Web site at http://www.TROA.org/UFLetter.htm . We encourage subscribers to use or modify this letter as they see fit.
Comments may be “snail mailed” to the address indicated on the sample letter or e-mailed to uniformulary@tma.osd.mil
Issue 2: Senators Introduce VA Subvention Bills
Senators Mark Dayton (D-MN) and Craig Thomas (R-WY) have introduced bills to authorize Medicare to help pay for the care of non-service connected, Medicare-eligible veterans in VA facilities.
Senator Dayton’s bill, S.2232, would potentially open Medicare resources to any VA facility, subject to annual spending limitations set jointly by the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services. Any designated VA site could offer Medicare services only under either an HMO-type model or a fee-for service model. Participating veterans would have to be enrolled in VA health care, be at least 65, and enrolled in Medicare Parts ‘A’ (inpatient) and ‘B’ (outpatient) benefits.
Senator Thomas’ bill, S. 2233, would authorize a demonstration project to test the concept at up to 10 VA facilities under a coordinated care or fee-for-service model (but not both at one site). Three of the 10 sites selected must be in a rural area. Up to $75 million would be authorized for each year of the three-year test period. The VA and HHS would jointly determine the funding rules for the pilots. Enrollment criteria would be the same as in the Dayton bill.
The test program bill is likely to attract more attention, since its original cosponsors include Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), the Chairman and Ranking Member, respectively, of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. Sen. Rockefeller is also a member of the Finance Committee, which oversees Medicare programs for the Senate. Other original cosponsors include Senators Cleland (D-GA), Snowe (R-ME), Jeffords (I-VT), and Carnahan (D-MO).
TROA and The Military Coalition have long supported legislation to at least test the use of Medicare funds in VA facilities for the care of Medicare-eligible veterans. Earlier bills have foundered on doubts over VA’s ability to track the use of Medicare funds in its vast hospital network and disagreements over how to test the concept. For more on S.2233 and a similar House bill (H.R.1911, Rep Saxton, R-NJ), see TROA’s “Bills of Interest” (scroll to the Health Care section) at http://capwiz.com/TROA/issues/bills/
Issue 3: House Panel Clears DIC Remarriage Bill
H.R. 4085, approved this week by the House Veterans Benefits Subcommittee, would change the law so that surviving spouses of veterans who died of service-connected causes would not lose their VA benefits if they remarry at age 65 or older. These benefits include a VA survivor annuity (Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, or DIC), eligibility for CHAMPVA medical care, education, and housing loan benefits. Those surviving spouses who remarried after age 65 prior to enactment of the bill would have one year from the date of the new law to reapply for benefits.
H.R. 1108, sponsored by perennial DIC champion Rep. Mike Bilirakis (R-FL), would allow DIC continuance if the remarriage occurred after age 55. But subcommittee members could not find the necessary funds and elected to pursue the age-65 initiative as a first step, in hopes of additional future action to cover survivors remarrying after age 55. We believe this is a significant step toward the equity principle that TROA, the Gold Star Wives, other Military Coalition partners and other groups have sought for years. In all other federal agencies’ survivor annuity programs, widows remarrying at age 55 or older do not suffer termination of their survivor benefit.
The bill, as amended by the Subcommittee, also authorizes a full-inflation cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for all VA disability compensation and DIC annuitants, effective 1 Dec 2002; equalizes VA home loan fees for National Guard and Reserve service members with other VA home loan fees; and increases VA home life insurance coverage, among other benefit improvements.
TROA commends Veterans’ Benefits Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-ID), HVAC Chairman Chris Smith (R-NJ), Rep. Bilirakis, and the members of the Subcommittee for their leadership on this issue.
Issue 4: Committee Clears Terrorism Bill
The House Armed Services Committee, in addition to its normal consideration of the FY2003 Defense Authorization Act, has approved a special bill, H.R. 4547, aimed at helping to address the specific costs of the war on terrorism.
Among other initiatives, the Committee included authority to:
*Increase Family Separation Allowance from $100 to $125 per month;
*Increase monthly hazardous duty incentive pays for various specialties by $50 per month; and
*Increase the military death gratuity (paid as an immediate lump sum to survivors of members who die on active duty) from $6,000 to $12,000.
These changes would go into effect Oct 1, 2002, unless enactment of the legislation is delayed beyond that date.
PLEASE NOTE: WE HAVE A NEW SIGN UP POLICY
To subscribe/unsubscribe or change your email address for the legislative update, please go to http://www.TROA.org/LegislativeUpdate.asp . If you are a TROA member you will need your membership number to sign in to the site. If you are NOT a TROA member, please provide the requested information on the “Sign Up” page.
If you have questions regarding the content of the update, please send a message to legis@TROA.org .
Copyright © 2002, The Retired Officers Association (TROA), all rights reserved. Part or all of this message may be retransmitted for information purposes, but may not be used for any commercial purpose or in any commercial product, posted on a Web site, or used in any non-TROA publication (other than that of a TROA affiliate, or a member of The Military Coalition) without the written permission of TROA. All retransmissions, postings, and publications of this message must include this notice.
By Steve White
As you might know from previous meetings, the Chapter started a scholarship fund last year using the $1,000 the Chapter received for being selected as the Chapter of the Year. Your Board of Directors selected William (Bill) K. Hall to be the Chairperson for the Scholarship Committee. His responsibilities included researching how to implement the scholarship, manage the fund, award the scholarship, and to select a recipient. The committee is also responsible for assisting and advising he membership on ways to raise additional funds to add to the scholarship fund.
Bill recommended that the Chapter invest the funds in the San Juan College Foundation. The Foundation takes care of the administration of the funds including management of the funds and awarding of the scholarships. Essentially the Foundation takes care of all the responsibilities except the fund raising, relieving the Board, Committee, and General Membership members from the time consuming administrative activities.
The Chapter’s primary goal and responsibility for the Scholarship Fund has become one of raising an additional $8,000 in the next 12 months. The Board and Scholarship Committee remain committed to researching fund raising methods and activities to recommend to the General Membership. However, the Board and the Committee can not do all the work. To be effective, the scholarship fund raising activities will require the participation of all our members. No one expects that the most significant contributions will come from within the membership. Although several members have contributed substantial amounts, the real success of our efforts will lie in the membership’s connection to the private and business sources of large contributions.
During the last meeting, Bill provided a report of his activities and requested that we (the Membership) volunteer for membership in the Scholarship Committee and provide leads for contribution sources. The Board heartily supports his requests and encourages all members to contribute their time to this worthy endeavor. If you can help, please contact Bill Hall at 333-2424 (Home) or 326-6571 (Work) or drop him a note at #97 CR 2785, Aztec, NM 87410 or e-mail: bhall@cyberport.com.
Through the efforts of just a few members, we have increased the fund from $1,000 to $2,150. Our thanks go to Computer Tutor, Ltd., Frank and Lou Rinehart, Jack Lee, and Marlo Webb for their generous contributions to the fund.
From the Internet
REMEMBER....
When the worst thing you could do at school was smoke in the bathrooms, flunk a test or chew gum. And the banquets were in the cafeteria and we danced to a juke box later, and all the girls wore fluffy pastel gowns and the boys wore suits for the first time and we were allowed to stay out till 12 p.m. When a '57 Chevy was everyone's dream car. . . to cruise, peel out, lay rubber and watch drag races, and people went steady and girls wore a class ring with an inch of wrapped dental floss or yarn coated with pastel frost nail polish so it would fit her finger. And no one ever asked where the car keys were 'cause they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked. And you got in big trouble if you accidentally locked the doors at home, since no one ever had a key.
Remember….
Lying on your back on the grass with your friends and saying things like "That cloud looks like a..." And playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game. Back then, baseball was not a psychological group learning experience - it was a game.
Remember…
When stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals 'cause no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger. And...with all our progress...don't you just wish...just once...you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace...and share it with the children of the 80's and 90's.
So…, send this on to someone who can still remember Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Laurel & Hardy, Howdy Doody and The Peanut Gallery, The Lone Ranger, The Shadow Knows, Nellie Belle, Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk as well as the sound of a real mower on Saturday morning, and summers filled with bike rides, playing in cowboy land, baseball games, bowling and visits to the pool...and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar. When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home. Basically, we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! But we all survived because their love was greater than the threat.
Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, Yeah, I remember that! And was it really that long ago?
By Al Garcia
The upcoming meeting is our last meeting before we go on our summer break. We have had a pretty good year and we have done a few good things. We are recognized by National TROA for the third year since we have been a chapter. I encourage all of you to attend our next meeting. The Totah News has been selected by TROA to receive the 2001 Annual Award for Excellence. Colonel Martinez, President, New Mexico Council of Chapters, will be coming to make the presentation. Steve White continues to do an outstanding job of editing and publishing our Newsletter. He is to be congratulated. However, we encourage all of you to contribute to it.
The name change of our organization will depend on each member vote which is coming up in August. The Retired Officer's Magazine will send out a ballot asking us to vote. I recommend that we all vote, YES! But your vote is your own. The name, Military Officers Association of America (TROA), will take a while to sink into our minds but the rational for the change makes good sense and broadens the field of membership eligibility. The mission remains the same it has always been.
We need more of you to volunteer to serve with Bill Hall on the Scholarship Fund Raising Committee. A Chapter such as ours operates on a volunteer basis. We do need help in this arena. We all agreed we would support the project. To be a success we need help to make it viable.
Some Board of Directors members have agreed to represent the Chapter at the Annual ROTC Awards Ceremonies coming up towards the end of this month. If you have been reading the Daily Times in recent days, you have seen articles regarding good things these young students have accomplished. We present a certificate and a medal to selected students from each school.
On behalf of the Officers and Board of Directors, we wish you a happy summer time. We hope your travels will be pleasant and safe. We do hope to see all of you at the Annual Summer Picnic.
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children
of both Pam and Jack were participants as were other members of the both
families. 
