Pentagon officials are exaggerating concerns over rising health-care costs in order to justify higher fees for beneficiaries, according to the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA). ""For months, the Defense Department (DoD) has defended its proposals to punish beneficiaries with thousands a year in higher TRICARE fees by claiming fast-rising TRICARE costs are ‘eating us alive’," Vice Adm. Norb Ryan, President of MOAA said July 30. "But the reprogramming memo the Pentagon just sent to Congress indicates those claims were flatly untrue, and DoD leaders should have known it." MOAA disputed the Pentagon’s stance that private-sector health-care costs will rise 12.9 percent for active-duty service members and 8.5 percent for all other beneficiaries this year. Rather, MOAA asserted, costs so far have risen 0.6 percent for active-duty members and actually declined 2.7 percent for other beneficiaries.
