Author: By tom philpott Military Update
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Military Update: ‘Force of Future’ to reward talent, diversity, motherhood
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter next month will be presented with a package of proposals for reshaping military and defense civilian pays, promotions and quality of life, all of which strive to capture a “Force of the Future” vision that Carter laid out in a speech last March. The draft proposals, reviewed by the services’ assistant…
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Military Update: Commissary reformers eye repeal of pricing model
Defense officials appear ready to ask Congress to repeal a law that commissaries must sell products at cost plus 5 percent, a formula that for decades has ensured commissary shoppers everywhere pay the same prices. Officials have drafted a replacement formula that would allow prices to vary from store to store to meet a new…
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Military Update: Compound drugs fleece TRICARE, create deep budget hole
Dodgy companies peddling pricey compound pharmaceuticals have fleeced the Tricare program so severely this year that they are largely to blame for a $2 billion defense health budget hole. In fiscal 2010, military outpatient pharmacy costs totaled $6.6 billion, with $23 million spent on compound drugs. By fiscal 2014, outpatient pharmacy costs had risen to…
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Military Update: Service chiefs warn against defense cuts as sequestration continues
Military leaders over the past week have sharpened warnings that force readiness is unraveling and it could plummet if Congress allows the next round of defense cuts mandated by the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA), with its sequestration tool, to take effect Oct. 1 The House and Senate budget committees, in turn, issued their own…
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Military Update: Report says crews of former ‘spray birds’ exposed to Agent Orange residue
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 the Air Force and Department of Veterans Affairs about for nearly four years. The Institute of Medicine said Carter and up to 2,100 other…
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Military Update: Basic Allowance for Housing dips in January
Basic Allowance for Housing paid to a million service members living off base in the United States will rise by an average half percentage point in January as two slimming changes to rate calculations take hold. The 2015 BAH rates no longer will include added dollars for renters insurance, a move that dampens rates an…