The Debt Reduction Task Force, co-chaired by former Republican Sen. Pete Domenici and economist Alice Rivlin, takes sharper aim at the military community including active duty forces still at war in Afghanistan.
In the unlikely event Congress approves the Domenici-Rivlin plan for cutting military retirement, members who haven’t served more than 15 years would find themselves under a cheaper, “more flexible” and complex plan.
Proponents argue that many more members under the proposed plan would qualify for some retirement, at age 60, if they serve 10 years or more. But completion of a traditional 20-year career no longer would qualify for an immediate annuity on leaving service. Retired pay would begin at age 57.
Debt Panel II, as it might be called, began its work in January at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington D.C. think tank founded by four former Senate majority leaders.
Like a report released Nov. 10 from the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, co-chaired by Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, this latest report warns of an approaching debt tsunami that could destroy America prosperity if government spending isn’t slashed and taxes raised.
Among scores of initiatives are recommendations to raise social security payroll taxes, cap medical malpractice awards, freeze defense spending for five years and reduce active force strength by 275,000.
Both this and the Nov. 10 report recommend adoption of a modified Consumer Price Index to dampen annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for federal entitlements including military and federal civilian retired pay, social security, veterans’ compensation and survivor benefits.
Both reports also call for cutting military retirement and having TRICARE beneficiaries pay more out of pocket for coverage. But the Domenici-Rivlin panel would wield a shaper knife on both major benefits.
On retirement, Debt Panel II embraces reforms proposed by the 10th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation in 2008. The idea is to allow more members to earn some retirement – making the plan more “fair” and, for force managers, more flexible – while slashing overall program costs.
Two of four features – a defined annuity and a government-funded Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) with vesting after 10 years – would apply to all members who get pushed under the new plan.
The annuity formula is familiar at 2.5 percent of average annual basic pay (but for their highest five earning years not the highest three average) multiplied by total years served. Payments would start at age 60 for those who serve 10 to 19 years and at 57 for those who serve 20 or more.
Government contributions to TSP accounts would start in year two and equal two percent of basic pay. They would climb to three percent in year three and four, to four percent in year five, and to five percent thereafter.
The services would control the plan’s other two features: “gate pays” to help draw members to time-in-service milestones, and separation pay.
Critics argue the plan is too complex and would leave members confused as to the real value of their retirement. The QRMC proposed that the plan be tested on a few thousand volunteers. That wasn’t done. Yet Debt Panel II proposes transitioning most current members to the new plan.
“Under such a plan,” it reports, “current pay will have to rise to make up for the reduced incentive for members to remain in service. Even with such adjustments, however, this reform is projected to reduce the retirement system’s cost by at least 50 percent.”
Recommendations targeting TRICARE also, in effect, are pulled off the shelf. That is, they were part of President George W. Bush’s final defense budget request, provisions that Congress simply had ignored.
Domenici and Rivlin note again that TRICARE fees haven’t been raised since they were set in 1995 and, at the time, covered 27 percent of program costs. Now the frozen fees cover only 11 percent. And Medicare-eligible retirees, the report says, “currently do not share in their TRICARE costs.”
So Debt Panel II says TRICARE fees for working-age retirees should be raised high enough to again cover 27 percent of costs. A pay expert who worked for the task force said the plan assumes that enrollment fees for TRICARE Prime, the managed care option, would be raised from $460 a year for families and $230 for individuals and tiered based on gross retired pay.
For example, a married retiree with less than $20,000 in annual retired pay would pay $730 in year one, $900 in year two. These larger incremental raises would stop in year five when the yearly fee hit $1260.
Those with retired pay of $20,000 to $40,000 would pay more. The highest enrollment fees, for those drawing more than $40,000 in retired pay, would top off in year five at $2460, or $2000 higher than they pay now.
These rates then would be adjusted to keep pace with inflation.
Fees for outpatient visits would more than double, to $28. And working-age retirees using the fee-for-service TRICARE Standard plan or TRICARE Extra would be charged an enrollment for the first time of $150.
Pharmacy co-pays in TRICARE retail network – now $3 for generic, $9 for brand-name drugs on formulary and $22 for non-formulary drugs – would be reset at zero for generic drugs, $15 for brand names on formulary and $45 for brand names off formulary.
Without specifying numbers, the panel also recommends that Medicare-eligible retirees using TRICARE for Life as a supplement to Medicare begin paying “minimal cost-sharing” amounts. But active duty members and families would continue to be spared TRICARE premiums or co-pays.
Domenici quoted Adm. Mike Mullen, Joint Chiefs chairman, as calling rising U.S. debt “the most serious threat to America’s national security.”
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