ARMED FORCES NEWS
House Passes GI Bill Hike
Concurrent Receipt Refuses to Die
Tricare for Life Threatens Class Act
Medicare Part B Break Possible for Retirees
June 24, 2001

1. House Passes GI Bill Hike
This week the House unanimously passed one of the biggest GI Bill increases ever. Under the legislation, benefits for a veteran with three years of service would almost double over the next three years from the current $650 a month to $1,100. For veterans with two years of service or reservists who have served four years, the max benefit would rise from $528 to $894 over three years. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., House Veterans' Affairs Committee chairman, said the benefit, when fully phased in, would increase from today's $23,400 to $39,600, enough, he said, to cover costs for a commuter student at a four-year public college. The Senate takes up the bill next.

2. Concurrent Receipt Refuses to Die
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has lambasted the way disabled military retirees must fund their own disability benefit. Reid hopes to correct the inequity with the Retired Pay Restoration Act of 2001, thus ending what he and groups supporting military retirees believe is a 110-year injustice that prevents military retirees from receiving full military retired pay and VA disability compensation. "I am going to do everything I can to make sure this passes in some form and is sent to the President to be signed," said Reid. He made his comments on the NBC Nightly News.

3. Tricare for Life Threatens Class Act
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has set aside an earlier ruling concerning the Class Act Lawsuit brought by retired Air Force Colonel Bud Day, a Medal of Honor holder. The earlier ruling agreed that the government had reneged on free lifetime healthcare promises for military retirees who entered service prior to June 7, 1956. If the ruling had stood, it would have required the government to pay up to three million retirees, widows and dependents up to $10,000 apiece. The new decision calls for a rehearing before the full court, and gives the parties two months to file new briefs. Placed at issue are three legal questions: 
  • (1) is a lifetime healthcare promise enforceable under the law; 
  • (2) has Congress already fulfilled such promises through DoD-provided healthcare, and
  • (3) does Tricare for Life, effective October 1, negate the validity of the plaintiffs' claim.
    See www.classact-lawsuit.com.

4. Medicare Part B Break Possible for Retirees
The Tricare senior pharmacy service that began April 1 and the Tricare-for-Life program coming October 1 go a long way toward giving Medicare-eligible military retirees the lifetime medical care they were promised by recruiting pitches. However, eligibility depends upon their paying into Medicare Part B. If they didn't opt for Part B earlier, they now face a $5 monthly add-on to premiums (currently $50 a month) for every year they could have taken Part B but didn't. The Tricare Retirees Opportunity Act, introduced by Rep. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., would offer a grandfathering window. Under the bill, military retirees could enroll at any time between January 1, 2001, and December 31, 2002 without penalty, and their enrollment would be effective the first day of the following month.

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