So much for that COLA and ‘free’ medical care we were promised…

Obama Budget: Cap Military Raises, Hike Retiree Health Fees

Trying once more to get military compensation costs “under control,” the Obama administration has asked Congress to cap annual active duty and reserve component pay raises, and to phase in over four years a complex formula for raising TRICARE fees on retirees of all ages and their families.

The five-year budget plan unveiled Wednesday proposes that annual pay raises be held at one percent from 2014 through 2016 and be raised to 1.5 percent in 2017 and to 2.5 percent in 2018, said Robert Hale, the Department of Defense’s under secretary and comptroller.

The first year’s pay cap alone, which would trim just eight-tenths of a percentage point off a scheduled 1.8 percent increase to match of private sector wage growth, would save $540 million in 2014 and $3.5 billion through 2018, officials said.  

As in years past, the administration seeks to cut health costs by having retirees and families pay more under all three options of TRICARE.

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Officials hope tying the size of fees to level of retired pay will soften resistance in Congress.  Also, this year’s plan would exempt from any fee increases the survivors of members who die on active duty and persons medically retired from service.  And the department no longer is asking that TRICARE fees be adjusted annually based on medical inflation.

That concession to use retiree COLAs instead might be less than it appears.  The Obama budget proposes, as part of a larger debt-reduction deal, that all federal COLAs, including for social security, veteran benefits and retirement plans, switch to a “chain” Consumer Price Index to measure inflation.  This CPI would save the billions of dollars annually by shaving every COLA by a fraction of a percentage point.

Full article HERE, from Military.com.

And since the military is NOT allowed to actually speak out on political issues, they are counting on this just sliding under the radar and once again screwing the military… Hopefully MOAA, NCOA, American Legion, VFW, and Fleet Reserve Association will rally they troops once again…

We had a saying… FUBAR and this applies… sigh…