Key House Leaders Assail Health Fee Plan

On March 3, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif, and ranking minority member Ike Skelton, D-Mo., sent a letter to Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, objecting to a Defense Department plan to severely raise Tricare costs for military retirees under age 65 and add other fees in order to keep the budget in the black. The letter also took issue with DoD for having already advised Tricare contractors about implementing the increases. “Circumventing Congressional oversight by quickly implementing fundamental changes to a highly viable medical benefit is not keeping the promise to the sailors, soldiers, airmen and Marines that serve our country,” they said. “Defense spending amounts to a far lower percentage of the nation’s gross domestic product than it did five years ago — a projected 4.0 percent in 2007 compared to 6 percent in 1985,” they added.