New ‘In-State Tuition’ Rule for GI Bill
MILITARY UPDATE: Understanding New ‘In-State Tuition’ Ceiling on GI Bill Perhaps the first thing veterans using GI Bill education benefits should understand about new “in-state tuition” protection that...
View ArticleVA Needs to Plus Up Medical Staff
MILITARY UPDATE: VA Chief: ‘Tens of Thousands’ More Medical Staff Needed The Department of Veterans Affairs needs “tens of thousands” more personnel working in VA hospitals and clinics to meet patient...
View ArticleDischarge Upgrades May be Possible for Vets with PTSD
MILITARY UPDATE: 80,000 Vets with PTSD Could Gain Discharge Upgrades As many as 80,000 veterans who suffered from post-traumatic stress and received Other Than Honorable discharges can use evidence...
View ArticleHobbled VA Caregiver Program Dims Chance of Expansion
by Tom Philpott For older generations of spouses, mothers and other family caregivers of severely disabled veterans, the startling feature of the Family Caregiver Program that Congress enacted in 2010...
View ArticleIs Redux Retirement a Rip-Off?
MILITARY UPDATE: Redux Retirement – $30,000 ‘Loan’ Costs You $390,000 Would an E-6 careerist nearing retirement accept a $30,000 car loan if forced to pay back a total of $390,000 in principal and...
View ArticleDoD Health Care on Par with Civilian Providers
MILITARY UPDATE Health Review Verifies a Pearl: Secure Doc-Patient Email The recent 90-day review of the Military Healthcare System found it “comparable in access, quality and safety to average...
View ArticleVA ‘Choice Card': Uncertainties Swirl as Deadline Nears
By Tom Philpott Congress last August gave the Department of Veteran Affairs 90 days to issue medical “Choice Cards” to 9.1 million veterans enrolled in VA care. The tight deadline of Nov. 5 won’t be...
View ArticleSlim Chance to Stop Higher Rx Co-Pays, Smaller ‘BAH’ Hikes
By Tom Philpott When Congress reconvenes Nov. 12, opponents of billions of dollars in military compensation “reforms” sought by President Obama and the Joint Chiefs of Staff will have one final and...
View ArticleRetiree COLA Set for 2015
Military and federal civilian retirees, survivor benefit annuitants, disabled veterans and Social Security recipients will see a 1.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment in January. The yearly COLA on...
View ArticleCommissaries Respond to Drop in Sales
MILITARY UPDATE: Commissaries Answer Sales Drop with ‘Value Brand’ and More The Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) faced a tough operating environment in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 as sales fell...
View ArticleFirst VA Care ‘Choice Cards’ Mailed Out
The Department of Veterans Affairs has mailed its first medical “Choice Cards,” with letters explaining how to use them, to 320,000 VA-enrolled veterans who reside more than 40 miles from any type of...
View ArticleAutism Care Coverage Improves, Patient Costs Still a Worry
By Tom Philpott More than 26,000 military families with autistic children are getting better TRICARE coverage of applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy and related services, which can improve a...
View ArticleLate-Hour Benefit Fight Has Defense Bill on Ropes
By Tom Philpott A dispute between House and Senate armed services committees over whether to slow growth in military housing allowances and raise off-base pharmacy copayments has put at risk passage of...
View Article2015 Military Pay Pinch Could Become 2016 Punch
MILITARY UPDATE: 2015 Pay Pinch to Become 2016 Punch If Sequester Is Not Lifted Military folks will see compensation packages pinched in 2015 under a deal struck this week by House and Senate...
View ArticleCommissary $$$ Restored; Base Tobacco Prices Rising
by Tom Philpott House and Senate conferees negotiating a package to fund the Department of Defense through September 2015 have protected commissary operations by restoring 90 percent of a planned $100...
View ArticleSky-High Price Has VA Rationing Drugs
MILITARY UPDATE: Sky-High Price Has VA Rationing New Hepatitis C Drug Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) used one of his last hearings as chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee to review how VA has...
View ArticleAverage 2015 Basic Allowance for Housing to Rise Only .5 Percent
MILITARY UPDATE: Average Stateside Housing Allowance to Rise Only .5 Percent Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) paid to a million service members living off base in the United States will rise by an...
View ArticleCongress: We Went Too Far on Star-Rank Retired Pay
By Tom Philpott At the urging of then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Congress in 2006 took aggressive steps to raise pay and future retirement of currently serving general and admirals,...
View ArticleDoctor-Lawmaker Heck Ready to Triage Compensation Reforms
MILITARY UPDATE: Doctor Lawmaker Ready to Triage Compensation Reforms – As an Army Reserve physician triaging the care of arriving wounded at the combat support hospital on Al Asad Airbase, Iraq, for...
View ArticleDogged Reservist Behind Win for Ailing C-123 Crewmen
By Tom Philpott Retired Air Force Reserve Maj. Wes Carter almost didn’t travel to Washington D.C. last week where, to his surprise, he heard an independent panel of scientists verify what he had dogged...
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