By Stephen Barr
June 9, 2003
Low Turnout
Before Congress provided military retirees older than 65 with comprehensive health care coverage, it ordered a pilot project to see whether military retirees would be interested in coverage through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, which provides insurance to civil service and postal retirees.
Last week, the General Accounting Office produced a lengthy report on the pilot project, which ran from 2000 to 2002. Enrollment in the test project peaked in 2001 with 7,521 people, just as Congress decided to go ahead with the comprehensive program dedicated to military retirees.
The turnout was not especially impressive for the pilot project, considering that it was open to 120,000 of the more than 1.5 million military retirees and dependents 65 and older.
Most military retirees who knew about the project told GAO that they were satisfied with their health care coverage, saying it had better benefits and lower costs than could be obtained through the FEHBP project. Among the small proportion that did enroll, they viewed the pilot project as providing better benefits, such as coverage for prescription drugs.
Interestingly, the military enrollees were, on average, younger and less sick than their FEHBP counterparts, GAO found. During the first year of the project, the cost of health care for the military retirees was $3,529 a person, compared with $5,313 for their civil service and postal counterparts in FEHBP, GAO said.
Under the 2001 Defense Authorization Act, Congress decided to supplement the Medicare coverage received by military retirees. Retirees were given access to prescription drugs through the military's Tricare pharmacy program. Military retirees who enrolled in Medicare Part B, which covers doctors and outpatient hospital care, became eligible to join Tricare for Life. It offers benefits not provided by Medicare.
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