Nobody ever said military life was easy. It entails long hours, hard work, lengthy separations from loved ones, not to mention putting your life in danger on a regular basis. Many members of Congress acknowledge that we can’t ever pay service members what they deserve, but the total compensation package, which includes a variety of quality-of-life benefits, is meant to make the burdens of military service a little easier to bear.
FRA’s recent online survey asked current and former personnel which of those military benefits were most important to them and their families. More than 91 percent of all active duty respondents and 71 percent of Reserve participants cited healthcare as a critically important quality-of-life (QoL) benefit associated with their military service.
Survey results indicate that healthcare is significant to every member of the military population, including active duty and Reserve personnel, retirees, survivors and veterans.
Based on this need and past promises to career enlisted personnel, FRA will focus on ensuring adequate funding for the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare programs as its top legislative priority for 2009.
“Since health care affects every facet of the military community, ensuring current and former service members and their families have access to a robust healthcare benefit remains the Association’s number one priority,” explains Joe Barnes, FRA’s national executive director. “This is an ongoing challenge as healthcare costs are rising, the population needing military and VA medical care is growing, and there is continuing pressure to shift costs to beneficiaries.”
Base pay was also cited as a major QoL factor for active duty and Reserve respondents. As a result, the Association continues its fight for annual military pay increases that are higher than the Employment Cost Index (ECI), calling on Congress to close the gap that currently exists between military and civilian pay scales. Thanks in part to advocacy efforts by FRA, military personnel realized a higher-than-ECI pay hike of 3.9-percent for 2009.
In the survey, active duty personnel also identified housing allowances, education benefits, and access to quality schools for their children as important priorities. Retirement benefits, which include pay and healthcare, also ranked high among Reserve participants. In addition to its calls for improved pay and benefits, FRA’s broad legislative agenda includes efforts to streamline the absentee voting process for military voters, restrict unscrupulous lenders from preying on military personnel, and reform the Uniformed Services Former Spouses Protection Act (USFSPA) to make it more equitable for service members. All of these concerns are addressed in FRA’s ambitious legislative agenda, which is available at www.fra.org.
FRA uses the results of this and other surveys to strengthen its advocacy efforts on behalf Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard personnel and ensure the enlisted perspective is considered on Capitol Hill. (Click here to take FRA’s latest survey about military child care programs.)
“We listen to our members and make sure their concerns are brought to the attention of lawmakers,” says Barnes. “We reference our surveys in our testimony before congressional committees, in correspondence and in face-to-face interaction with members of Congress and their staff.
“Many service members believe their pay raises and benefit enhancements are automatic, or that Congress is obligated to fund these improvements,” Barnes adds. “The truth, however, is there is no law to protect your pay and benefits. In the current economic climate, Congress is feeling a lot of pressure to reduce costs across the board. Unfortunately, military people programs are often the first target of opportunity when it comes to cutting the budget.”
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