Military Retirees' Health Care: Costs and Other Implications of Options to Enhance Older Retirees' Benefits

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on various proposals that have been made to enhance older retirees' Department of Defense (DOD) health care benefits, including: (1) enrolling Medicare-eligible retirees in TRICARE Prime, TRICARE's health maintenance organization (HMO), and paying for their care with Medicare funds, referred to as Medicare subvention; (2) using DOD funds to pay retirees' Medicare part B premiums and to furnish Medigap policies; (3) providing the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services as a Medicare supplement; (4) extending the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program to retirees as a Medicare supplement and using DOD funds to pay part of the premium; and (5) expanding DOD's current mail-order prescription program to Medicare-eligibles who do not live near military medical facilities.