The numbers, however, do not allow for continued inaction. Increasing health-care costs in DoD’s budget mean less money for bombs, bullets and training. Fielding a military but supplying it with obsolete equipment and minimal training is the definition of a hollow force. Sensible reforms, like the ones proposed in the administration’s FY2013 budget request, will not break faith with military retirees and their families. But Congress must acknowledge that Tricare is merely a policy, part of a larger military compensation package that seeks to recruit and retain the best men and women for military service. It was never intended to become an inalienable right.
Congress’s unwillingness to reform Tricare is emblematic of larger trend in an American society still haunted by Vietnam, still coming to grips with the emergence of a small, separate caste of soldiers who does the nation’s fighting. Overcompensating for the past and seeking to support the troops with more than a bumper sticker, today’s veterans are lionized and given deference not accorded other public servants. As Andrew Bacevich recently wrote, “reward has taken its place alongside remembrance.” Having asked so little of ourselves, we justify our inaction and assuage our consciences through such praise and reward.
I joined the Marine Corps for a lot of reasons. Cheap health care wasn’t one of them.
W. Jonathan Rue, a former active-duty Marine officer, works for a small consulting firm focusing on defense policy and budgeting. He blogs at Gunpowder & Lead and can be followed on Twitter @wjrue.
Comments
When I became an Air Force officer some 40 years ago, one of the "promises" made was health care for life. I have seen those benefits continually chipped away for myself and increasingly for younger folks entering the service today. Anyone who would argue, as the author does, that the military is smothered with compensation and benefits, regardless of his loyal service as a Marine, is just flat wrong. It smacks too much of the TV newsman who stated some years back that soldiers were a pampered lot. Given the state of perpetual war and perpetual deployments that we seem to be in, compensation and benefits become a crucial means of recruiting and retaining military forces. If, as the author believes, the military is becoming a caste (an assertion with which I profoundly disagree), we have only ourselves to blame, because while we claim to love the profession,as a society we seem to do our best to discourage our sons and daughters from joining the ranks: we counsel them that they can "do better" with their lives, or -- a la Charlie Rangel -- we spout lies about how only the ignorant and the poor serve. These folks who serve us in uniform are our finest, they make incredible sacrifices, and they should be rightly compensated. Raising Tricare fees by several hundred percent is not the way to accomplish that objective. The author needs to remember those who served before him, and for far longer periods.
Mr Rue, some thoughts about your views and article - 1. “First, rates have remained virtually unchanged since the creation of Tricare in 1995.” The discussions I read - including those offered by even the DoD Press Secretary and a legislator or two - seem always to start with this assertion or something similar. It is as if history starts with Tricare. It, of course, does not. There are probably a few million of us retirees left who began service before that. And before that there was an agreement – viewed by some of us as a promise. In return for 20 years of sometimes dangerous jobs and frequently dislocated families and lives, we (the U.S. government) will “take care of our people”. And that included cost free health care to service members and their families. For life. At least what was promised (yes promised - I don’t remember any policy considerations down the line conversations in the recruiting office) to me and what I promised to others, in the name of the United States government, during my tour as a recruiter. Of course “policy” changes have, since Tricare, made a liar out of me an every other pre-Tricare recruiter. 2. “But Congress must acknowledge that Tricare is merely a policy, part of a larger military compensation package that seeks to recruit and retain the best men and women for military service. It was never intended to become an inalienable right.” I don’t think that any of us viewed health care for life as an “inalienable right”. I think we just viewed it as a deal. Like, if you do this, we will do that - simple and straightforward, you’d think. But, reality changes. So be it, we will have to live with it. But, lest it be overlooked yet again, those of us who naïvely bought the deal are not lamenting the loss of anything more than what we were led to believe was promised to us. 3. “I joined the Marine Corps for a lot of reasons. Cheap health care wasn’t one of them.” The same was true of me when I joined the service. But everybody else is not necessarily in the same position as you and me. For many (known to me personally) when faced with a choice between a no benefits job or the pitiable benefits conferred by Home Depot, Walmart, and the like, health care is among the reasons they choose the service. While not the only – not even the major – reason, health care benefits for themselves, their spouses and, most importantly, their children are significant nonetheless. So, even though it may mean be being in harms way and long periods away from their families, health care benefits make their best option the service. It would be good if those of us familiar with people in these circumstances helped policy makers, who are mostly not familiar, to understand what being in the service means.