LPP 07-07 February 2007

 Continuity of Health Care: TRICARE for Reservists

With an ever increasing reliance on the deployment of Guard and Reserve members, members of Congress and DoD leadership have finally acknowledged that there is a need to provide TRICARE for Reservists, outside of periods of recall or mobilization.

New DoD policies of 12 consecutive months of duty with a frequency of one year out of six will make a continuity of health care even more important for a Reserve Components.  While many Reservists thought they had completed their mobilization requirements under the current Presidential Authority, it appears that they could be called up again.

National Guard and Reserve members experience problems when moving from their civilian health care to TRICARE when being deployed. They frequently must change physicians, which is extremely stressful for family members who require continuing care, such as a pregnant spouse or a family member who requires special care. Members and their families can also experience problems when returning to private healthcare from TRICARE if there is a condition which began while in the TRICARE system.  While TRS is a good first step, TRICARE is neither universally accepted nor available to everyone entitled.  Suggested enhancements include:

• Continue to improve health care continuity to all drilling Reservists and their families by

o         providing an option of DoD paying a stipend toward employer’s health care.

o         allowing demobilized Reservists, involuntarily returning to IRR, Tier One TRS coverage.

o         allowing demobilized Retirees to qualify for Tier One TRS coverage.

o         allowing demobilized FEHBP eligible to qualify for Tier One TRS coverage.

• Extend military coverage for restorative dental care following deployment.
• Allow gray-area retirees to buy-in to TRICARE Reserve Select.
• Require that physicians who accept Medicare must also accept TRICARE.

As RC members are being recalled from the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), and from “gray-area retirement”, not every one who has served in the Global War on Terrorism will have an opportunity to return to a SELRES status.  Such communities as doctors and chaplains often are resident in the IRR, because there are no SELRES billets available to them.  Gray-area Reservists will be returned to that limbo between drill status and “paid” retirement, and are precluded from drilling in the selected reserve. 

Under current law beneficiaries of the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan are not eligible for the new TRICARE Reserve Select program as passed in the Fy-2007 National Defense Authorization Act.  Federally employed Reservists who had deployed and had earned TRS under the old Tier One rules, lost their eligibility.

          ROA supports extending this “earned benefit” to all members who have earned it while serving during a contingency.