Weekly Government and You Enews for August 9, 2005 from National Military Families Association

Since 08-10-05

From: families@nmfa.org
Subj: Weekly Government and You Enews for August 9, 2005 
Date: 8/9/2005 12:38:32 PM Eastern Standard Time
Sent from the Internet (Details)

 

August 9, 2005

To view the complete August 9, 2005 Government and You E-News click here.

Please feel free to forward this news to others who might be interested and encourage them to 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 Weeks New's Include:

1. Happy Belated Birthday, Coast Guard!!  On August 4, the United States Coast Guard, one of America's five armed forces, celebrated the 215th anniversary of its founding. For more information, click Here.

2. How do You Value Your Military Benefits?  How important are the benefits and entitlements you receive from the military?  Not just the health care or the education benefits, but the fun activities, the shopping, and the family outings! For more information, click Here.

3. New CNO Ties Family Readiness to Servicemember Readiness: In his initial meeting with the Navy Ombudsman Quality Management Board (OQMB), the new Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Mullen emphasized the importance of the Navy family.  For more information, click Here.

4. Pharmacy Formulary Changes Coming for More Medications: On July 14, 2005, Dr. William Winkenwerder, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, approved the movement of more drugs to the more expensive third tier of the DoD formulary.  For more information, click Here.

5. IRS forgives income tax of servicemembers killed in combat: To ease some of the burden for families of servicemembers killed in combat, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is forgiving all income tax servicemembers owed at the time of their death.  For more information, click Here.

6. Some Military Families No Longer Eligible for TRICARE Prime Overseas:  Effective October 1, active duty families brought by the servicemember overseas  without command sponsorship will no longer be allowed to enroll in TRICARE Prime.  For more information, click Here.

7. DoD Releases SBP Open Season Guidance:  The FY 2005 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), improved the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) by eliminating the age-62 offset. It also provided for a one-year open enrollment season to allow retired servicemembers who had not previously elected coverage to now sign up for the enhanced benefit. This enrollment season will also allow those who had elected less than maximum SBP coverage to increase their coverage.  For more information, click Here. 

8. We Still Need You to Complete the NMFA Cycles of Deployment Survey:  As military families continue to support their servicemember, we at NMFA need to know how military families are doing so that we can continue to support them with our strength and commitment. Help us help you! Log on to www.nmfa.org/surveys to take the Cycles of Deployment survey or check out all of our past survey results! Let us hear from you so we at NMFA can continue to be “The Voice For Military Families.”