Despite Promises, Without Warning, TRICARE Raises In-Patient Co-Pays – Update
Oct 01 2009
Special Update
The Senate has heard your voice and has eliminated the increase in these fees. From tomorrow’s Legislative Update (sneak peak):
TRICARE Inpatient Fee Hike Killed
When the Pentagon announced last week that it would raise inpatient copays for retired TRICARE Standard beneficiaries by $110 per day, MOAA swung into action, writing the Secretary of Defense, contacting the White House, and writing Hill leaders to reverse that plan.
MOAA members did their part by generating almost 20,000 messages to the Hill.
These combined efforts yielded positive results, as the newly released FY2010 Defense Authorization Act includes a provision barring any inpatient copay increase.
Excellent work, and there’s even more good news about the NDAA, so check out tomorrow’s Update.
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Broken Promises
Throughout the year and especially as the health care reform debate was at its peak, we were given assurances that there would be no changes to TRICARE. Going on these assurances, Congress did not place fee hike restrictions in the National Defense Authorization Act. Yet today we saw a 21% increase to inpatient copays for retirees, family members and survivors. The inpatient fee hike of $110 per day brings the total amount to $645, which is far higher than the majority of civilian and private insurance plans.
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