Mr. MURTHA. This letter prompted me to call for this important hearing.

Again, I welcome each of you here today. We are interested in hearing from you on assessment of military health care, the Coordinated Care program, the CHAMPUS Reform Initiative, and the recently released Coordinated Care support program request for proposals. We will begin with Mrs. Dorsey Chescavage, Assistant Director of Government Relations for the National Military Family Association. Mrs. Chescavage.

STATEMENT OF MRS. CHESCAVAGE

Mrs. CHESCAVAGE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. NMFA represents military families, active duty, retired, survivors, Reserve and Guard. We represent those people who sit around the kitchen table talking about their dreams, careers, their children, their health and their budget.

Right now in California and Hawaii, military families are sitting around their kitchen tables in shock. They are being told that CRI will end. Those families in CHAMPUS PRIME will probably have to give up their doctor, they could be forced into PRIMUS or NAVCARE clinics which they know very well are-walk-in Doc in the Box-clinics known primarily for their long waits, medical care by the number.

They are being told that even if they are allowed to stay in a civilian network, no more $5.00 a visit. They will then have to pay the actuarial equivalent of standard CHAMPUS. I can assure you, Mr. Chairman, most of those families at the kitchen table know instinctively and immediately that they cannot afford the actuarial equivalent of standard CHAMPUS.

Those 300,000-plus families who have been able to form relationships with their doctors in CHAMPUS Extra are finding out the entire program will be abolished, gone, wiped out.

Around the kitchen table, the main question is why? Why are they doing this to us. Did Congress make them do it? Is it costing the government too much money? I know of no other group of beneficiaries in the world who would worry more about the Defense budget than worry about themselves, but I can promise you this is a question military families are asking. When we tell them no, Congress is not making them do this, and no, this is not costing the government too much money, as a matter of fact, it has saved the government money, they are stunned, they feel betrayed. They feel betrayed by their own, and I can tell you, Mr. Chairman, that really hurts.

I had a call from a Marine wife who told me that before CHAMPUS PRIME, she would go to Balboa Naval Hospital when she was sick. She would have to be in line at Balboa at 5:30 in the morning because the clinic opened at 7:00 a.m.. This line was not to see a doctor. This line was for getting an appointment. If all the appointments for the day were gone by the time she got to the front of the line, she would have had to come back the next day.

I remind you that she was sick or she wouldn't have been there. She is now enrolled in CHAMPUS PRIME. Her doctor is five minutes from her house. She knows she can always have enough

money set aside to have that $5.00 she needs if anyone in her family gets sick. For the first time in their military career, the family feels secure about their health care, and that is extremely important.

I also had a call from a doctor in Hawaii who said he would lose 300 to 400 patients under the new contract. Most of his patients are families of E-3s, E-4s, and E-5s enlisted. There is no way they can afford the actuarial equivalent of standard CHAMPUS. He told me he honestly believes their health will be in jeopardy under the new contract. Many of them have chronic illnesses and we don't have continuity of care in military medicine and I don't believe we will have it under Coordinated Care.

Mr. Chairman, I can't thank you enough for what you have attempted to do for the health care of military families. You are one of the few champions the military family has. We certainly don't seem to have any in the Pentagon right now.

[The statement of Mrs. Chescavage follows:]

The National Military Family Association (NMFA) is a nonprofit, primarily volunteer organization with membership from the seven uniformed services, active duty, retired, reserve component and their family members and survivors. NMFA is the only national organization whose sole focus is the military family and whose goal is to influence the development and implementation of policies which will improve the lives of those family members.

NMFA is most grateful to this Subcommittee, and you in particular Mr.
Chairman, for your extraordinary support of military family health care.

The Military Health Care Benefit - What it is and What it isn't!

Only active duty personnel are guaranteed medical care in a military treatment facility (MTF). MTF services for all other beneficiaries are rationed. MTF care is rationed by:

a. space considerations, limited facilities and fluctuating
capabilities (including staffing levels) of the MTF

b. the priority system

c. the Military Health Services System (MHSS) budget

Title 10 U.S.C. ENTITLES active duty dependents to medical care in an MTF, but only on a space available basis. Retirees and their dependents MAY have care in an MTF, but only on a space available basis. This priority system often results in unacceptably long waits for medical care by active duty families and may leave retirees and their families totally without medical care in an MTF. Budgetary constraints also periodically restrict MTF services.