NMFA Government and You E-News for November 29, 2005

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From: Waspscpo@aol.com [mailto:Waspscpo@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2005 8:30 AM
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Subject: NMFA Government and You E-News for November 29, 2005

 

November 29, 2005

To view the complete November 29, 2005 Government and You E-News click
here.

Please feel free to forward this news to others who might be interested and encourage them sign up to receive the Government and You E-News at the NMFA website http://www.nmfa.org/enews_signup. Questions regarding the content in this newsletter should be sent to: families@nmfa.org.

Thank you for your interest in military families.

Topics in this Week’s News Include:

1. Families Still Waiting For “Families First”: The Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) has announcing that the Families First Program, DoD’s latest effort to re-engineer the household goods move process, has entered a “strategic pause” and will not be implemented in early 2006 as recently planned. For more information click here.


2. NDAA Goes to Conference: House and Senate Conferees will begin work on reconciling the difference in the House and Senate versions of the FY 2006 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), H.R. 1815 and S.1042. In preparation for the Conference, The Military Coalition (TMC), an umbrella organization of 36 military-related associations of which NMFA is a founding member, sent a letter to Conferees outlining its position on the various issues of contention. For more information click here.

3. Traumatic Injury Protection Added to SGLI: Servicemembers will be enrolled in a new program December 1 that will expand benefits provided through Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI). The traumatic SGLI benefit provides payouts of up to $100,000 for servicemembers with traumatic injuries. For more information click here.


4. TRICARE Reserve Select Premiums to Increase: DoD recently announced the premiums for TRICARE Reserve Select (TRS) for calendar year 2006. By law, TRS enrollees must pay a set proportion of the cost of their coverage. For more information click here.


5. VA Prescription Co-Pays to Increase by $1.00: Co-payments for outpatient medicines prescribed through Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facilities will increase by $1.00, to $8.00 per 30-day prescription, on January 1, 2006. For more information click here.


6. Fewer War Wounds Suffered in Iraq are Fatal: The survival rate for U.S. servicemembers wounded in Iraq has reached 90 percent, higher than in any previous war, and 10 points higher than in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The major reason, says the general in charge of Army medical training, is improved trauma care being delivered moments after injury by medics and a growing number of soldiers trained as combat lifesavers. For more information click here.

7. Military Benefits: Which Did You Say is Most Important? Approximately 600 respondents completed NMFA’s recent Military Benefits Survey and told us what they thought were the most important military benefits. Did they choose the same ones that are important to you and your family? For more information click here.

8. November is National Adoption Month: Even though it’s the end of the month, it’s never too late to remind folks about adoption opportunities. Military families make great adoptive families and NMFA is working with a variety of organizations to provide more information for military families interested in adopting and thus to help ease the process for them. For more information click here.

9. Coming Home: The Impact of PTSD on Military and Veteran Families. On Thursday December 8, Representative Lane Evans (D-IL, 17th), the Ranking Member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, is sponsoring a Congressional briefing and panel discussion to highlight both the pivotal role families play in encouraging a servicemember or veteran to seek treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and how PTSD can affect military families. For more information click here.
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Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)