By: Moncrief, et al. S.C.R. No. 7 SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 1-1 WHEREAS, Military retirees who have served honorably for 20 1-2 or more years constitute a significant part of the aging population 1-3 in the United States; and 1-4 WHEREAS, These retirees were encouraged to make the United 1-5 States Armed Forces a career, in part by the promise of lifetime 1-6 health care for themselves and their families; and 1-7 WHEREAS, Prior to the age of 65, these retirees are provided 1-8 health services by the United States Department of Defense's 1-9 TRICARE Prime program, but those retirees who reach the age of 65 1-10 lose a significant portion of the promised health care due to 1-11 Medicare eligibility; and 1-12 WHEREAS, Many of these retirees are also unable to access 1-13 military treatment facilities for health care and life maintenance 1-14 medications because they live in areas where there are no military 1-15 treatment facilities or where these facilities have downsized so 1-16 significantly that available space for care has become nonexistent; 1-17 and 1-18 WHEREAS, The loss of access to health care services provided 1-19 by the military has resulted in the government breaking its promise 1-20 of lifetime health care; and 1-21 WHEREAS, Without continued affordable health care, including 1-22 pharmaceuticals, these retirees have limited access to quality 1-23 health care and significantly less care than other retired federal 1-24 civilians have under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program; 2-1 and 2-2 WHEREAS, It is necessary to enact legislation that would 2-3 restore health care benefits equitable with those of other retired 2-4 federal workers; and 2-5 WHEREAS, Several proposals to meet this requirement are 2-6 currently under consideration before the United States Congress and 2-7 the federal Department of Defense and Department of Health and 2-8 Human Services; of these proposals, the federal government has 2-9 already begun to establish demonstration projects around the 2-10 country to be conducted over the next three years, which would 2-11 allow Medicare to reimburse the Department of Defense for the costs 2-12 of providing military retirees and their dependents health care; 2-13 this project would allow a limited number of Medicare-eligible 2-14 beneficiaries to enroll in the Department of Defense's TRICARE 2-15 Prime program and receive all of their health care under that 2-16 program; now, therefore, be it 2-17 RESOLVED, That the 76th Legislature of the State of Texas 2-18 hereby memorialize the Congress of the United States to maintain 2-19 its commitment to America's military retirees by providing lifetime 2-20 health care for military retirees over the age of 65; to enact 2-21 comprehensive legislation that affords military retirees the 2-22 ability to access health care either through military treatment 2-23 facilities or through the military's network of health care 2-24 providers, as well as legislation to require opening the Federal 2-25 Employees Health Benefits Program to those uniformed services 2-26 beneficiaries who are eligible for Medicare, on the same basis and 3-1 conditions that apply to retired federal civilian employees; and to 3-2 enact any other appropriate legislation that would address the 3-3 above concerns; and, be it further 3-4 RESOLVED, That the Texas Secretary of State forward official 3-5 copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, 3-6 the president of the senate and speaker of the house of 3-7 representatives of the United States Congress, and all members of 3-8 the Texas delegation to the Congress with the request that this 3-9 resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a memorial to 3-10 the Congress of the United States.