By Tom Philpott
Military Update focuses on issues affecting pay, benefits and lifestyle of active and retired servicepeople. Its author, Tom Philpott, is a Virginia-based syndicated columnist and freelance writer. He has covered military issues for almost 25 years, including six years as editor of Navy Times. For 17 years he worked as a writer and senior editor for Army Times Publishing Co. Philpott, 49, enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1973 and served as an information officer from 1974-77.
In a stunning victory for military retirees who entered service before June 7, 1956, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that the government breached its promise to provide free lifetime medical care in return for their completing full military careers.
If allowed to stand, the unanimous decision in Schism and Reinlie v. the U.S. would force the government to pay as much as $10,000 apiece to more than a half million retirees, and perhaps to many more of their spouses or survivors.
The aim would be to reimburse beneficiaries for Medicare Part B premiums and supplemental insurance premiums paid since the shift to the managed care program TRICARE Prime in 1995, said retired Air Force Col. George Day, lawyer for plaintiffs.
Because TRICARE wasn’t open to service elderly, it forced thousands of them out of base clinics and hospitals to cost-share under Medicare.
The ruling also would mean that users of the new TRICARE for Life plan, which takes effect in October, should not have to pay Medicare Part B premiums of $50 a month, Day said, though no one should assume such a result.
The Justice Department has until mid-March to decide whether to appeal.
Day began the fight in August 1996 and organized older retirees into the Class Act Group. At his law office in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., the 76-year-old said he was "walking 3 feet off the ground."
The decision reversed a pro-government judgment in September 1998 from U.S. District Court Judge Roger Vinson in Pensacola, Fla, that confirmed promises of free lifetime health care were made routinely as an enticement to serve, but were not backed by law or regulation and thus not "contractually binding."
The appeals court found Day’s documents — from old Navy medical manuals to a recent recruiting brochure — persuasive.
"The government cannot unilaterally amend the contract terms now," the appeals court ruled. The government "breached its implied-in-fact contract with the retirees when it failed to provide them with health care benefits at no cost."
The appeals court reversed Vinson’s summary judgment for the government, and ordered the case returned "for determination of damages."
Day targeted his case to retirees who entered service before President Eisenhower signed a law that limited the military’s medical obligation to retirees based on availability of staff and space in military hospitals. Most service people didn’t know about the change, Day said.
Morally, it wasn’t right to continue to promise free lifetime health care to generations of recruits, Day said. That’s why Congress, under intense pressure, passed TRICARE for Life and TRICARE Senior Pharmacy programs last year.
Billions of dollars are at stake. Day said he is filing a motion to designate the lawsuit a class action on behalf of World War II and Korean retirees who have been honorably retired after 20 years or more active duty, had no break in service since June 7, 1956, until retirement, and draw Social Security.
Interested retirees should write to: Class Act Group, 32 Beal Parkway SW, Fort Walton Beach, FL 32548-5398; leave a voice mail at (800) 972-6275, or call (850) 664-6324 or 5139.
Write to Military Update, P.O. Box231111, Centreville, Va 20120-1111, or send e-mail to: milupdate@aol.com.
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