El Paso Chapter
Military Officers Association of America

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE - May/June 2019

             I want to make you aware of several key actions and enlist your involvement and support as the El Paso Chapter is MOAA rolls into the summer here along the southwest border.

First, MOAA is asking you to take action to contact legislative leadership to reverse Congressional initiatives to dismantle military medicine.  The DoD FY2020 budget calls for the elimination of almost 20%, or roughly 18,000 military medical positions, and the action appears to be based more on market or network analysis than on analysis of support requirements for operational readiness.

Some experts suggest that a 20% force reduction constitutes a dramatic qualitative change and will have significant unintended effects on the military health system...and may adversely affect all American medical care.  While changes will definitely affect military service members, military retirees will experience profound effects.  I encourage each of you to follow this discussion further by reading the CAPT Kathryn Beasley USN (Ret) article on the MOAA website.  CAPT Beasley is the Director of Government Relations, and Health Affairs.

Second, MOAA continues to lead the fight to eliminate the “Widows Tax”.  Three more Senators signed on as co-sponsors of S.622, the Military Widow’s Tax Elimination Act.  The act now has the backing of sixty senators and could move forward to a debate and subsequent vote soon.  As most of you know, survivors of deceased military members must forfeit part or all of their purchased Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) annuity when awarded the VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC).  The loss of any portion of the SBO annuity is known as the Widows Tax.  For 66,000 military survivors, this makes the SBP the only insurance product in the country that you pay into but are legally prohibited from collecting.  MOAA asks you to contact your legislators now and encourage the passing of this key legislation.

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