New legislation introduced by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., would ensure members of the National Guard and reserves have health care coverage equivalent to active-duty service members, but it still faces an uphill climb to actually become law.
“When servicemembers sign up to serve their country, it’s our duty to support them,” Baldwin said in a statement to Reserve & National Guard Magazine. “That includes providing access to comprehensive health care.”
The Healthcare For Our Troops Act offers premium-free TRICARE Reserve Select coverage to all guardsmen and reservists. According to the National Guard Association of the United States (NGAUS), almost one in five members of the Guard and Reserve has no health insurance.
“These days, you’re seeing the Guard everywhere,” said retired Maj. Gen. Frank McGinn, president of the National Guard Association of the United States. “We’re out in a lot of the cities, we do all sorts of homeland defense type missions, in addition to our primary responsibility as the primary combat reserve of the Army and Air Force.”
But guardsmen and reservists currently only receive TRICARE coverage when they are mobilized by the federal government for longer than 30 days. State active duty does not provide health care.
“Not having health care, we think, is an inequity compared to our active component brethren,” said McGinn.
Lack of comprehensive health care is seen by both Baldwin and McGinn as a readiness issue. When one in five guardsmen do not receive regular preventative care or lack continuity of coverage, many health issues are not identified until they begin the mobilization process.
Currently guardsmen spend one weekend a year doing a periodic health assessment on base. Automatic enrollment in TRICARE would allow guardsmen to be assessed by their own civilian doctors.
“That gives them another weekend to train on their specialties and become ready for their primary mission of the war fight,” said McGinn. It would also save more than $162 million annually on contracted medical assessments.
McGinn acknowledged that they have yet to develop a companion bill in the House or find a Republican cosponsor for the Senate bill. And the initial grade from the Congressional Budget Office did not take into account what he considers important cost offsets, so the expense seems daunting.
“Doing it this year is going to be tough,” he admitted.
But he noted that extending dental coverage to guardsmen and reservists made it into the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act the last four years.
“If we could even get the dental passed this year, that would be a home run.”
McGinn appreciates Baldwin’s leadership on the issue.
“She’s passionate about it,” he said. “She understands the readiness issue, and she understands the inequity.”
“Extending premium-free TRICARE to all servicemembers not only does right by our troops,” said Baldwin, “it also is a commonsense investment in our military readiness.”
