PIN COLA TO HEALTH CARE COSTS

WHAT'S Up : The Oct. 15 announcement there will be no cost-of-living adjustment this year in military retired pay the second consecutive year with no increase has prompted the National Association for Uniformed Services to renew its call for a new formula for calculating retirement expenses that puts more weight on things such as health care, which is bigger expense for seniors than for younger people. With retirees facing double digit increases in health care costs, the revised formula would provide a fairer and more accurate Social Security Cola each year, NAUS said in a statement.

WHAT'S NEXT: Military retirees have been partially protected from rising health care costs because fees for the Tricare health insurance program have been frozen while medical costs have soared. This could be coming to an end, though, as the Defense Department appears to be having some success convincing Congress that the rising health care costs being covered by taxpayers are diverting money from other programs. If military retirees were to start seeing the big premium increases facing civilians, it's possible there will be a lot more of them calling for a new way of calculating COLAS.