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The President signed important legislation for our Gray Area retirees into law on 28 Oct 2009 as part of the Fiscal Year 2010 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This new law authorizes TRCARE eligibility for our Gray Area retirees at full premium cost to the Department of Defense (DoD), which means the benefit comes at no cost to the government.
Shortly after passage of the law, the TRICARE Management Activity (TMA) assured military support organizations and Congress that the program would be on-line by October 1, 2010. However, for no apparent reason, DoD Health Affairs and TMA delayed sending the proposed rules for implementation to OMB until July 2, 2010. This late start to a 90 day period for open comment of the proposed rules puts the promised start date of October 1, 2010 in serious jeopardy.
Barring immediate congressional and Presidential intervention, implementation of TRICARE for our Gray Area retires will remain stalled. Our retired members deserve much better!
Please contact your Representative and Senators to urge them to take immediate action to demand that the Department of Defense and the President implement the TRICARE for Gray Retirees program as soon as possible.
Note: A “Gray Area” retiree is a retired member of the Reserve components under the age of 60 who is eligible to collect Reserve Retirement pay at age 60. The period between retirement and age 60 is called the “gray area” for these retirees.
TAKE THE FOLLOWING ACTION:
By
using the “Write to Congress” feature provided below, you can
IMMEDIATELY e-mail your elected representatives. A sample letter is
included in our “Write to Congress” feature. You can e-mail the
pre-written message or edit the sample letter as you desire. This is
the quickest and most effective method of expressing your views to
Congress. Also, contact your friends and family and urge them to “Write
to Congress” as well. For more in-depth information and background
visit our web site at http://www.ngaus.org/.
Please direct any questions concerning this issue to Pete Duffy, NGAUS Deputy Legislative Director, at 202-454-5307 or email: pete.duffy@ngaus.org.
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