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Pentagon struggles with high cost of health care

The loud, insistent calls in Washington to rein in the rising costs of Social Security and Medicare ignore a major and expensive entitlement program the military's health care system.

By Donna Cassata | Updated on April 08, 2013
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks at the National Defense University in Fort McNair, Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The loud, insistent calls in Washington to rein in the rising costs of Social Security and Medicare ignore a major and expensive entitlement program — the military’s health care system.

Despite dire warnings from three defense secretaries about the uncontrollable cost, Congress has repeatedly rebuffed Pentagon efforts to establish higher out-of-pocket fees and enrollment costs for military family and retiree health care as an initial step in addressing a harsh fiscal reality. The cost of military health care has almost tripled since 2001, from $19 billion to $53 billion in 2012, and stands at 10 percent of the entire defense budget.

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