[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 18 (Thursday, February 24, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S828-S829]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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          THE NEED FOR RESPONSIBLE MILITARY HEALTH CARE REFORM

 Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I wish to express the need to 
support responsible, significant, military health care reform. I 
commend the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee and Republican 
leadership for making enactment of military health care reform a top 
priority in the Senate.
  Our nation's military health care delivery system cries out for 
strong, meaningful reform. The military health care delivery system is 
facing some very unique challenges.
  One of the critical challenges is how best to reconfigure the 
military health

[[Page S829]]

care delivery system so that it might continue to meet its military 
readiness and peace-time obligations at a time of continuous change for 
our base and force structure. In the process of deciding how to 
proceed, I met with and heard from many military family members, 
veterans and military retirees from around the country. I was inundated 
with suggestions for reform. In every meeting and every letter, I 
encountered retired service men and women who have problems with every 
aspect of the military medical care system--with long waiting periods, 
with access to the right kind of care, with access to needed 
pharmaceutical drugs, and with the broken promise of lifetime health 
care for military retirees and their spouses. I heard these concerns 
expressed as I have traveled across the United States over the past 
several months.
  My distinguished colleagues, the Republican Leader, Senator Lott, 
Armed Services Committee Chairman, Senator Warner, and Ranking Member, 
Senator Levin, introduced a bill that also addresses the military 
health care system. The bill is S.2087, the ``Military Health Care 
Improvements Act of 2000.'' I applaud my colleagues in rising to this 
challenge, and I am pleased to see that portions of legislation I 
introduced last month were included in their bill. However, I can not 
cosponsor this legislation because it does not do enough to reform the 
military health care delivery system for our veterans, especially our 
oldest veterans, retirees, and survivors.
  I have several concerns with the legislation introduced yesterday.
  One of the areas of greatest concern among military retirees and 
their families is the ``broken promise'' of lifetime medical care, 
especially for those over-age 65. S. 2087 fails to meet what I think is 
the most important requirement, the restoration of the broken promise 
of free lifetime medical care promised to retirees and their families 
who entered the service prior to June 7, 1956. The major veteran 
service organizations share my view that the number one priority is to 
take care of these older military retirees and their spouses who were 
promised lifetime medical care benefits. I was proud to be an original 
cosponsor of S.2003 that restores the broken promise given to retirees 
who entered the service prior to June 7, 1956. I pledge to work with 
the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee on Armed Services to 
fully restore the broken promise to our over-65 military retirees and 
their families.
  In addition, there are some significant differences between S. 2013, 
the ``Honoring Health Care Commitments to Service Members Past and 
Present Act of 2000'' that I introduced in January with Senators 
Coverdell, Robb, Hagel, Jeffords and Bingaman, and the health care bill 
being introduced yesterday.
  My legislation would help repair the ``broken promise'' given to 
Medicare-eligible military retirees and their families by restoring 
their access to military health care that was taken away when they 
turned 65. Additionally, S. 2013 offers health care options to retirees 
and would provide additional benefits to active duty servicemembers and 
their families. The hallmark of this legislation is that it offers 
several new choices to retirees and their families in their health care 
delivery services.
  S. 2013 was drafted with the help of The Military Coalition and The 
National Military and Veteran's Alliance. The Military Coalition has 
strongly endorsed S. 2013, stating, ``We applaud your leadership in 
introducing comprehensive legislation aimed at correcting serious 
inequities in the military health care benefit.''
  While S. 2087 promotes enrollment expansion in the Federal Employees 
Health Benefit Program (FEHBP) demonstration for Medicare eligible 
beneficiaries, it caps the enrollment levels to just 66,000 personnel. 
This would preclude world-wide or even nation-wide enrollment, a 
feature offered in my bill.
  Additionally, S. 2087 expands TRICARE Senior Prime sites to only the 
major medical centers, not nation-wide like my bill. This would exclude 
hundreds of thousands of our retired servicemembers, only addressing 
the needs of Medicare-eligible retirees and their spouses who happen to 
live near a small number of hospitals.
  Finally, S. 2087 only has a mail-order option for pharmacy 
requirements of our Medicare-eligible retirees and their families and 
requires a $150 deductible. My bill offers both a mail order and a 
retail pharmacy option. The mail order option only helps Medicare-
eligible retirees who require long-term medication like blood pressure 
bills. However, if the retiree or spouse needs medication in a timely 
manner, it makes sense for them to be able to drive or walk to their 
local pharmacy and have their prescription filled. The bill I have 
offered allows for this option, The one introduced by my colleagues 
yesterday does not.
  Mr. President, I commend my colleagues for their efforts to address 
many of these important military health care challenges. Not lost on 
any of us is the urgent need to address the over-age 65 issue since 
there are reportedly 4,000 World War II, Korean and Vietnam War-era 
military retirees dying every month. It is imperative that as changes 
are made to our nation's military force and continue to be made in the 
future with regard to base structure, that Congress not only stay 
focused on bringing health care costs under control, but that steps be 
taken to retain the health care coverage so critical to our nation's 
active duty personnel, their families, retirees, and survivors. While 
the world situation necessitates a modified force and base structure 
transformed for the new millennium, it should not carry with it an 
abandonment of the responsibility that our nation has to assist those 
who have served our country to obtain access to the health care 
services they need.

  Make no mistake, retiree health care is a readiness issue, as well. 
Today's servicemembers are acutely aware of retirees' 
disenfranchisement from military health coverage, and exit surveys cite 
this issue with increasing frequency as one of the factors in members' 
decisions to leave service. In fact, a recent GAO study found that 
``access to medical and dental care in retirement'' was a significant 
source of dissatisfaction among active duty officers in retention-
critical specialties.
  I pledge to work closely with the Armed Services Committee, my 
respected colleagues from the committee, and from both sides of the 
aisle who have cosponsored my bill, as well as groups like the Military 
Coalition and the National Military Veterans Alliance, to work out our 
differences and not abandon the health care coverage needs of our 
nation's military retirees, their families, and survivors. We must pass 
comprehensive military health care reform to fulfill our broken promise 
to our military retirees while bolstering retention and readiness among 
today's servicemembers by assuring them that retention promises will be 
fulfilled once their active service is over.
  Mr. President, this year will be, in the words of the Joint Chiefs, 
the year of health care reform. Whether my legislation, S. 2013--fully 
supported by the major veteran service organizations representing over 
9 million members--is successful or not will depend on several factors: 
Congress' ability to realize real health care reform and provide the 
necessary resources, the Pentagon's ability to work with private 
industry to control costs on pharmaceuticals and health insurance 
plans, and the military retirees who utilize the system coming together 
and galvanizing support for the future of military health care. We can 
not abandon the ``greatest generation'' who are responsible for the 
successes and riches we currently enjoy in this great country.

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