stipend $1319 as of July

[Dadoh]

I just looked at my bank statement. Apparently the stipend was raised $40/month to $1319.
I know that everybody is excited about the possible increase to $30,000/yr that will come in Oct, but the way I see it legislature just raised the cap. They have to do this every few years so that the DOD's hands aren't tied as to how much they can give. This will allow them to raise it a little every year, until a future time when congress has to raise the cap again. I don't think that we are going to get the $30,000/yr because the DOD won't be able to raise it again w/o another bill going through. I think in another several years it will be raised again. like now the limit is $15,000 with the increases each year we are getting close to that so they had to submit another bill to get the cap raised to $30,000. I hope that I have to eat my words on this because I wouldn't mind get $30,000/yr, but I don't see it happening.

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[dexadental]

Excellent news, I really doubted the stipend to increase to the 30,000 cap so soon. Ah, now with that extra 40 bucks I'll have to rework my entire budget!

 

[HumptyDumptyMil]

I wonder if the RATE of increase will change any. Anyone know if they doubled the cap the last time they raised it?
The shortage of new recruits is a current issue, and I would think that raising the stipend gradually will not attract as much people than if they choose to siginificantly increase it now.
Maybe not double it, but more than a increase of $40/year

 

[DD214_DOC]

I wonder if the RATE of increase will change any. Anyone know if they doubled the cap the last time they raised it?
The shortage of new recruits is a current issue, and I would think that raising the stipend gradually will not attract as much people than if they choose to siginificantly increase it now.
Maybe not double it, but more than a increase of $40/year

I'm sure they will do something, just maybe not soon. The whole point of increasing the cap to $30k was the expectation that the DoD would immediately increase the stipend to close to this amount.

And where are you getting the $15K cap at? The actual bill the stipend is based on sets a base monthly rate for the amount, which has increased every FY since it came into effect. The new bill does away with this amount and sets a cap instead, with the cap to be raised every year instead of the amount; the DoD is free to set the actual monthly amount at whatever they wish.

 

[Dadoh]

I'm sure they will do something, just maybe not soon. The whole point of increasing the cap to $30k was the expectation that the DoD would immediately increase the stipend to close to this amount.

And where are you getting the $15K cap at? The actual bill the stipend is based on sets a base monthly rate for the amount, which has increased every FY since it came into effect. The new bill does away with this amount and sets a cap instead, with the cap to be raised every year instead of the amount; the DoD is free to set the actual monthly amount at whatever they wish.

I actually can't remember where I read that the cap was at $15000, and I am too lazy to go look it up, but I could also be completely wrong about that. I am just not getting my hopes up about the DoD raising the stipend to anywhere close to the $30,000, unless their backs are against the wall and they have to for recruiting purposes. I have heard that they are wanting to go more with contractors than military medical officers. At least that is what I have heard that they're planning on for the dental corps. So it would seem to me that the low recruitment would be a perfect oppurtunity for them to deemphasize recruitment and move more towards lining up contractors.

 

[DD214_DOC]

I remember there being a lot of talk of the military doing away with military PCPs and contracting that out. Supposedly they were moving more towards recruiting only "wartime" specialties such as anes, EM, surg, etc. The contracted docs were meant to hang out around base to take care of the families while the soldiers, sailors and marines are deployed. What contracted doc wants to get shipped off to Iraq or stationed in Wurzberg or Camp Zama?

This will definitely reduce the numbers necessary to be recruited but then they face the challenge of finding a way to attract docs to contract.

In the end it probably doesn't matter if they raise the stipend or not. At this point, I'm just along for the ride.

 

[Dadoh]

I remember there being a lot of talk of the military doing away with military PCPs and contracting that out. Supposedly they were moving more towards recruiting only "wartime" specialties such as anes, EM, surg, etc. The contracted docs were meant to hang out around base to take care of the families while the soldiers, sailors and marines are deployed. What contracted doc wants to get shipped off to Iraq or stationed in Wurzberg or Camp Zama?

This will definitely reduce the numbers necessary to be recruited but then they face the challenge of finding a way to attract docs to contract.

In the end it probably doesn't matter if they raise the stipend or not. At this point, I'm just along for the ride.

knowing what little I know about the military any change with switching to contractors will take a while, and you are right, I doubt that contractors will want to deploy and who knows maybe they won't have to in order to increase the contractor numbers. If that is the case, the load will shift even more so to the real military docs and they will still have the problem with recruiting. They still have to convince somebody to deploy.

I guess we are all just along for the ride now. Our ship has already set sail. I just hope that it is a cruise ship and not a slave ship.

 

[deuist]

I know that everybody is excited about the possible increase to $30,000/yr that will come in Oct

I think you mean October of 2007.