The FY 2024 DoD budget request includes a mix of good news and potential concerns for TRICARE beneficiaries. As a leading voice on Capitol Hill regarding military health system (MHS) issues, MOAA championed a recent letter from The Military Coalition (TMC) urging DoD leadership to ensure the TRICARE benefit continues to provide the low out-of-pocket costs, comprehensive coverage, and access to quality care servicemembers and retirees have earned.

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“Cutting benefits after they have been earned betrays the social contract that underpins the all-volunteer force” says the letter, sent to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. “It is surely a factor in today’s recruiting challenges as military families – key influencers – become less inclined to recommend military service to young people, including their own children.”

MOAA was glad to see the FY 2024 budget request includes no proposals for TRICARE fee increases and suspends planned military medical end strength divestitures – an advocacy priority for MOAA since medical end strength reductions were proposed in 2019. With the help of our members, MOAA has achieved four successive halts to medical billet cuts, including a provision in the FY 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) suspending medical billet reductions for five years and directing extensive DoD analysis and reporting.

According to the budget request overview, “The Department will use this directed pause to conduct an assessment of current military medical end strength to match operational requirements and enable the MHS to increase the medical readiness of the force, as well as the readiness of our medical force.” DoD also will present a plan to Congress to address civilian backfill and persistent civilian vacancies or risks associated with medical billet reductions, according to the overview.

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Purchased care administered by the TRICARE contractors is another important component of the MHS. Private sector care accounts for more than 65% of total care provided to beneficiaries, and the FY 2024 budget request includes a 7% increase in TRICARE funding.

Past TRICARE budget increases have prompted efforts to trim the benefit and/or shift costs to beneficiaries, as acknowledged by further DoD budget documentation: “Over the period from FY 2012 to FY 2018, both private health insurance premiums and National Health Expenditures per capita rose 25% (or 3.7% annually). The Private Sector Care budget should have continued to rise but the Department, with concurrence from Congress, instituted a series of initiatives that bent the cost curve. A combination of benefit changes, payment savings initiatives, contract changes, and population reductions offset underlying increases in health care costs.”

While the FY 2024 budget does not include TRICARE fee increases or new military health care benefit cuts, pressures on the MHS budget continue to be a concern. Protecting TRICARE is a top priority for MOAA, and our efforts will continue as MOAA members take part in our Advocacy in Action campaign to restore the TRICARE pharmacy network.