The government's promise of lifetime health care for the military may no longer be sacred. Lawmakers are signaling a willingness to make military retirees pay more for coverage — but resistance is fierce.
Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments/…/recently co-authored a report, "Changing the Business of Defense," which called for DoD to really assess what its service members need in a retirement plan. The current system, TRICARE for Life, only benefits about 17% military personnel because of the 20 years of military service required to qualify for the program. "Instead of using a one-size-fits-all approach, options could be developed that allow service members to choose among benefits to improve their perceived value while reducing costs," Harrison wrote in the report.