In an era of government belt-tightening, support appears to be growing for reining in the spiraling expense of military healthcare. In recommendations to the budget-cutting congressional "super committee" in September, President Barack Obama proposed two steps to offset rising military healthcare costs/.../
How detailed the deficit-cutting committee will be is unclear. Todd Harrison, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said he thought the panel was more likely to set a top-line number for defense spending and ask the Pentagon to figure out the details.
Harrison said he hoped the committee would take a more holistic approach to reforming military pay and benefits. What is needed, he said, is a commission that would "try to understand what they (military personnel) value rather than just making little changes here and there to save money."