Military families feel bypassed by overhaul benefits

The Washington Post: Families insured by the military's Tricare program will not be able to keep children on their plans until age 26, like Americans covered by most civilian policies, under the new health law. Before the overhaul passed, military families were assured that the legislation would not "negatively impact" Tricare and the program was left untouched. But now, some families are disappointed that they won't benefit from changes civilians may enjoy. "It seems discriminatory to those of us who have military benefits for which we are paying," one retired officer said. That's why lawmakers are hoping to tack a provision onto the defense authorization bill that would expand that and other health overhaul benefits to military families (Hilzenrath, 5/26).

Separately, The Hill reports, "First responders to the 9/11 attacks became unwittingly caught up in election-year partisanship on Tuesday as a House panel considered healthcare for those sickened by exposure to the World Trade Center site. The Energy and Commerce Committee marked up the bill largely along party lines, with Democrats saying first responders had earned the guarantee of medical care and Republicans saying another entitlement program is far beyond the government's spending reach" (Pecquet, 5/25).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.