[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 56 (Thursday, May 7, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S4534]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. FAIRCLOTH:
  S. 2045. A bill to amend title 10, United States Code, to permit 
certain beneficiaries of the military health care system to enroll in 
Federal employees health benefits plans, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Armed Services.


                 THE IMPROVED MILITARY MEDICAL PLAN ACT

  Mr. FAIRCLOTH. Mr. President, today I am introducing the Improved 
Military Medical Plan Act, IMMPACT for short, to ensure that military 
retirees and their families will continue to be given proper medical 
care. This past May 1, the Defense Department implemented its new 
health care program, known as TRICARE, in two more regions of the 
country, including in North Carolina. As the number of TRICARE 
enrollees increases and as the Military Health Services System is 
downsized, military retirees will have an even harder time finding 
space available at military facilities.

  Effectively, those military retirees over 65 are left with no 
military medical benefit, since they are unlikely to get into military 
facilities.
  Mr. President, this is a far cry from the promise that our government 
made to these retirees when they put in a full career in uniform 
risking their lives for our freedom. They were promised medical care 
for life, and everyone believed that it would be at base medical 
facilities. It just is not right to renege on that promise after all 
that these men and women have done for our country.
  We can and must do better. IMMPACT will allow Medicare-eligible 
military retirees, their dependents, and their survivors to participate 
in the Federal Employees Health Benefits program. It will also provide 
a very strong incentive for the Department of Defense to ensure that 
TRICARE is offering active duty personnel and younger retirees and 
their families a medical benefit equivalent to the federal civilian 
program.
  IMMPACT sets up a three-year demonstration. Ideally, the 
demonstration would be conducted on a nationwide basis, but I realize 
that such a broadly geographical demonstration could be difficult to 
manage. So the bill directs the Administration to have as expansive a 
demonstration as practicable, as long as at least six sites around the 
country are selected.
  The IMMPACT demonstration is simple. Medicare-eligible retirees of 
the uniformed services as well as their dependents and survivors at the 
selected demonstration sites will be able to apply for enrollment in 
the health care plans of the Federal Employees Health Benefits program. 
Every year, the Administration will report to Congress on the value of 
this health care option, how many eligible beneficiaries want to 
enroll, how much the demonstration is costing, how it compares to other 
health care options available to the beneficiaries, to name just a few 
of the metrics.
  The IMMPACT demonstration is only open to Medicare-eligible retirees. 
But, as I mentioned earlier, IMMPACT provides strong incentives for the 
Department of Defense to make TRICARE as comprehensive as FEHBP. The 
fine men and women now serving in the Armed Services and those who went 
before them deserve to be treated at least as well as civilian federal 
employee and retirees.
  This is very important to me. We have all heard of, or even 
experienced, health care plans where ``cost'' is a more important 
factor than ``service.'' Two health care plans could appear equivalent 
on the surface--their premiums could be about the same, they could have 
many locations for treatment, etc. But, if one plan is more 
bureaucratic than another, or it delays payments to doctors, or it is 
too tight on the definition of what is a ``reasonable and customary 
charge,'' eventually, the best doctors are going to drop out. In the 
Federal Employees Health Benefits program, civilian employees and 
retirees can opt out of a bad plan because they have a choice of many 
plans. But, in TRICARE, there is no real choice. There are no 
competitive pressures to keep TRICARE equivalent to the better civilian 
plans.
  IMMPACT will fix that. Within six months after the passage of 
IMMPACT, the Administration must submit a report to Congress that sets 
forth a plan to enhance TRICARE, if necessary, so that it is at least 
as comprehensive as the plans used by civilian federal employees and 
retirees.
  IMMPACT is independent of other demonstration programs. Some may 
argue that IMMPACT is not needed because we are running a Medicare 
Subvention demonstration. But, there is no reason why IMMPACT should 
wait for that program to be completed and evaluated. In fact, I want 
IMMPACT to be offered to the same retirees that could chose the 
Medicare Subvention plan. In this manner, we will have some clear 
market signals about the value of each of these options within the same 
customer community.
  At the end of the IMMPACT demonstration program, the Administration 
will advise the Congress of the need to extend the eligibility of 
participation in the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, first 
nationwide to all Medicare-eligible retirees, and then to all retirees 
or active duty personnel, if TRICARE proves to be inferior to the 
civilian health care benefit.
  Mr. President, some may complain that this program will increase the 
Defense Department's cost of delivering medical benefits. Perhaps it 
will. But, I think our military men and women and their families 
deserve a better health care program than they are being offered now. 
Clearly, if we can find the money to fund our extravagances in the arts 
and entertainment, we can find funding for medical care for those who 
have been willing to risk their own lives in defense of our liberty and 
freedom.
  Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to support IMMPACT.
                                 ______