| Extracted from the MOAA Newsletter, 13 July 2023What the NDAA Could Mean for Your TRICARE Coverage Two clear victories for MOAA and its members stemming from the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) come from what’s not in either the House or Senate version of the bill, or any of the thousand-plus proposed amendments (and that’s just the House version). First, the NDAA drafts include no TRICARE For Life enrollment fees or deductibles, a key priority for MOAA’s advocacy efforts. And second, the legislation includes no mention of planned staffing cuts at military treatment facilities (MTFs), as last year’s NDAA included MOAA-backed language shelving such moves for at least five years. This doesn’t mean the bill won’t affect your health care benefit. While many pieces of the NDAA puzzle remain unsolved – the Senate just released the full text of its version July 11, the date the House Rules Committee begins its work on the House version. House NDAA Sends Important Signal on Preserving Burial With Military Honors A provision in the House version of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) signals lawmakers’ intent to protect burial with military honors and prevent a reduction in service-earned benefits. The bill contains language from the Expanding America’s National Cemetery Act (H.R. 1413) requiring a joint report from DoD and the VA with “a proposal to increase national cemetery capacity through the expansion or modification of a national cemetery that has, or will have, the capacity to provide full military honors.” This is an important signal from lawmakers on the importance of continuing military funerals with honors and keeping our nation’s promise to our military community – a signal that runs counter to a previous proposal in the federal rulemaking process to dramatically reduce eligibility for Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) based on awards. |