Military health care, pay measure advances in Senate

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., said Tuesday that the Committee's Personnel Subcommittee, meeting in closed session Tuesday morning, approved draft provisions that seek "to improve health care benefits for active duty personnel, their families and, most significantly, for military retirees."

Warner said the panel's portion of the draft fiscal year 2001 defense authorization bill was approved without dissent. The panel essentially agreed that a stand-alone military health care bill (S. 2486) that Warner and most members of the subcommittee introduced Monday should be attached to the authorization bill, according to a knowledgeable source, who did not want to be identified.

For their part, subcommittee members declined to describe any of the actions they took in the closed session, saying they had been asked not to comment until after the full committee completes work on the authorization bill, probably next week.

According to statements made earlier this week by Warner, a key element of the health care provisions approved Tuesday would extend a "pharmacy benefit to all Medicare-eligible beneficiaries of the military health care system."

All military retirees under 65 already have access to a prescription drug program through military bases and to a national mail-order pharmacy and retail drug stores, under special co-payment and cost rules. Currently, military retirees lose their eligibility for drug coverage when they qualify for Medicare at age 65 but the new legislation would let then qualify for coverage under the same procedures as the younger retirees.

Sen. Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark., a co-sponsor of the health care provisions, described the proposal in a statement in the Congressional Record May 1. The proposal, which was included in the measure approved on Tuesday, provides that beneficiaries age 65 or over would pay 20 percent of the cost if they used a retail pharmacy network, and $8 for a 90-day supply of drugs with no enrollment fees or deductibles, if they bought them through the existing mail-order pharmacy program.

In a May 1 statement in the Congressional Record, Warner said he understood the importance of a comprehensive pharmacy benefit.

Meanwhile, other provisions of the bill would waive co-payments for active duty family members, under the military HMO program called TRICARE Prime, and also set up special HMO networks in remote areas where there are no bases, according to a non-congressional source.

The source familiar with the subcommittee action said the health care provisions would also extend current demonstrations allowing Medicare-eligible retirees to participate in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, but in any part of the country, not just the current eight locations, subject to a maximum national test enrollment of 66,000.

Sources also said that military pay will continue to increase annually at half a percentage point above the wage growth in the private sector. The bill also improves housing allowances for military personnel, eliminating most of their out-of-pocket costs.

National Journal News Service Reporter George C. Wilson contributed to this story.