The Foreign Service Journal, June 2010

I t was a long, convoluted and confusing process, but Congress ultimately passed — and the president signed into law—new health care legislation. Not sur- prisingly, it was an issue that commanded the attention of our retiree com- munity, prompting the most communications I have received since assuming office. The large majority of the messages supported positive congressional action. Indeed, a number of my correspondents were concerned that AFSAmight have opposed passage of the bill because we signed on with other employee organi- zations and unions in opposing the excise or “Cadillac tax” on premium health insurance plans, such as we enjoy as Foreign Service retirees. Let me address that concern and the AFSA stand on the excise tax. First and foremost, I want to advise all readers that tracking the evolu- tion of the bill was difficult, es- pecially for a group as small as AFSA. We drew on the analyses of larger employee organiza- tions, did our fact-checking and concluded that we would align with the other groups in oppos- ing the “Cadillac tax.” That op- position was limited and spec- ific, not a rejection of the larger legislation. Our fundamental concern was that the excise tax would have an increasingly negative impact, specifically sharply ris- ing premiums and fewer health services or a mixture of both. I found the tax es- pecially onerous as it fell most keenly on low-income federal employees, retirees and survivors, as it is not adjusted for income levels. As you all should know by now, the excise tax survived in the bill the president signed, although its appli- cation has been delayed until 2018. One distinguished colleague, a retired ambassador, thinks that AFSA should have conducted a referendum of the membership before taking a position on the excise tax. I disagree. It was a small, albeit significant part of a much larger issue, and you folks elected us to use our best judgment and exercise it on a timely basis. Furthermore, we simply cannot get into the business of expensive refer- endum votes whenever there is a controversial issue on which the president and Governing Board of AFSA need to make a decision. Only time will tell what the real costs of the new legislation are. I antici- pate that the equitability of the bill’s funding mechanisms, especially the ex- cise tax, will be scrutinized, and perhaps even revisited, before the effective date of 2018. ❏ 52 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U N E 2 0 1 0 A F S A N E W S Only time will tell what the real costs of the new legislation are. V.P. VOICE: RETIREE ■ BY ROBERT HOUDEK Health Care Reform Skills for Diplomacy and Development in the Age of Smart Power.” The series brings noted professionals and leading diplomatic experts to AFSA to advance innovative ideas about the education, skills and tools that the Foreign Service needs. The two ambassadors were seated in modern leather armchairs for a relaxed event that felt more like a Sunday talk show than a lecture. Homing in on the challenges facing today’s Foreign Service, Negroponte mentioned the continuing need, which is just now beginning to be addressed, for FSOs to be trained in the harder languages, such as Arabic — and for better and longer training for those already in the Service. “It has become a priority now to double, triple, even quadruple the number of hard-language speakers,” Negroponte pointed out. “This is a tremendous investment.” Both ambassadors agreed that for all the strides made in global outreach through technology, face-to-face diplo- macy is still invaluable. “There is no sub- stitute for having a person in the field,” Gnehm stressed. “We really do need more people who can get on Al-Jazeera and communicate in flowing Arabic.” Training A Top Priority Negroponte had brought a notepad with a list of priorities for improving the Foreign Service. Priority number one: Focus on training and deploying the force actually needed. Second, provide more incentives for FS members and their families, such as making overseas comparability pay permanent, improv- ing compensation for unaccompanied tours and finding new ways for spouses to be employed. Negroponte lauded the fact that, al- most overnight, the Foreign Service has been allocated more resources for many of the top priorities and initiatives. “In particular, our growing ‘training float’ is at least a partial step toward the gold standard of military training,” he said. He also observed that the dynamics of world politics have changed. “It’s not a bipolar world anymore; it’s a multipo- lar world,” he said. “And this has hap- Negroponte • Continued from page 49