Pete Domenici: “as many Senators know, there has been a major problem in funding for health care for military families and military…”

“as many Senators know, there has been a major problem in funding for health care for military families and military retirees since 1993. Budgets for the Defense Health Program have been submitted to Congress without requesting enough spending to cover all known medical and health care expenses. This problem has been recurring year after year because budget officials in the Department of Defense had been ``low balling'' their predictions of inflation in DoD's Defense Health Program; they have projected medical inflation at or below the overall economy's rate. Meanwhile, medical care costs have grown well above the national inflation rate. Since 1996 DoD has projected an average annual inflation rate of 1.8 percent in the Defense Health Program, but the actual average rate over that time period is 4.9 percent. Just last year, DoD predicted 2.1 percent inflation for the Defense Health Program in 2001; experts are predicting the rate to be 7.9 percent. This unacceptable budgeting practice has resulted in expenses being incurred but no funds to pay the bills. Congress has responded by funding these gaps with additional spending, usually in emergency supplemental appropriations bills. While we have addressed the problem when we ultimately learn the size of the funding gap, the inappropriate budgeting practices of the past have had a major negative impact on military service men and women, military retirees, and the dependents of both.”