EANGUS strongly supports H.R. 4221, the Healthcare for Our Troops Act. This legislation would provide Reserve Component (R.C.) servicemembers with zero-cost TRICARE insurance. Additionally, this legislation expands TRICARE eligibility to R.C. servicemembers currently working for the federal government in their civilian capacity.
H.R. 4221 was introduced by Rep. Andy Kim, D-NJ, and Trent Kelly, R-MS, on June 20, 2023.
Servicemembers are required to meet medical deploy ability requirements. An estimated 130,000 National Guardsmen and Reservists do not have health insurance under the currently disjointed systems of third-party health contractors and Periodic Health Assessments (PHAs), significantly impacting the Reserve Component’s medical readiness. Inconsistent healthcare coverage for members of the Reserve Component makes meeting these requirements difficult to achieve.ย
H.R. 4221, Healthcare for Our Troops Act, ensures servicemembers meet the medical standards of a deployable force at no cost to the servicemember. This change provides the Department of Defense (DoD) with a powerful recruiting and retention tool and a significant employer incentive to retain talented individuals in gainful civilian employment.
EANGUS does not believe that dental care only will make a significant improvement in medical readiness. The Reserve components use mitigating systems to provide zero-cost dental care and improve dental readiness. They currently use mass medical events with dental providers, a dental voucher system, and send servicemembers to providers near annual training facilities at the cost of the reserve components. With all these systems currently in place, there is no reason to believe that dental insurance only would significantly improve reserve component readiness. Furthermore, there is no such system or program for health care, and healthcare issues often are more complex and much more expensive to correct. We believe that the most significant impact would be that the lower enlisted would have to take time away from civilian employers to complete the required dental care that is currently provided during military service time.ย
Under current law, National Guard and Reserve servicemembers who are federal employees in their civilian capacity are ineligible to enroll in TRS. This creates confusion in coordinating benefits for servicemembers and their families and prevents servicemembers from establishing continuity of care and treatment as they deploy or transition in or out of the federal government. H.R. 4221 strikes the language that disallows servicemembers from accessing TRS simply due to working for the federal government in their civilian capacity.
Don’t hesitate to contact your representative and urge them to support H.R. 4221 by responding to this Call-To-Action.
If you have further questions regarding the Health Care for Our Troops Act, please do not hesitate to contact Kevin Hollinger atย kevin@eangus.org or contact him direct at (202) 670-1826ย
ACTION
If you are in agreement that Reserve Component Members should have access to Zero Cost healthcare (TRICARE) and Title 5 Civilians should have access to TRICARE, encourage your elected official to vote favorably on the bill/s by clicking on the link below. The link you will direct you to a pre-drafted note to your elected official/s. Simply complete the form and the note will be sent to your specific elected officials.
