FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 20, 2009
Contact: Katie Laning Niebaum, Leah Vest
(202) 224-4843

Lincoln Bill Would Ensure Guard, Reserve Receive Necessary Health Care to Maintain Readiness

Washington – Continuing her work to ensure our nation’s military service members, veterans, and their families receive the benefits and care they have earned and deserve, Senator Blanche Lincoln today introduced legislation requiring more accessible health care for Guardsmen and Reservists so that they can maintain necessary medical readiness to fulfill their missions. 

Lincoln’s Selected Reserve Continuum of Care Act is part of a series of bills Lincoln has authored this week to honor the service of our troops and their families. 

“That National Guard and Reserve have been and will continue to be an operational force serving overseas, and as such, require greater access to health care so that members can achieve a readiness standard required by their deployments,” Lincoln said.  “Far too many men and women are declared non-deployable because they have not received the medical and dental care they need to maintain readiness.  This can cause disruption in the unit by requiring last-minute replacements from other units or requiring treatment during periods set aside for training.  Compounding the challenge is the fact that short notice deployments occur regularly within the National Guard.  The Department of Defense can and should do more to bring our Selected Reserve members into a constant state of medical readiness for the benefit of the entire force.” 

After September 30, 2009, periodic health assessments to determine readiness will be mandatory for all members of the Selected Reserve.  However, concerns are frequently raised about the thoroughness of these exams and the subsequent lack of follow-up to address identified needs.  Often times, service members do not seek follow-up care because much of the costs come directly out of their own pockets. 

Lincoln’s legislation would require the Secretaries of the military to provide medical and dental services to members of the Selected Reserve if receipt of such services is needed to meet applicable standards of medical and dental readiness.  Current law only authorizes, but does not require, this care. 

This legislation would better ensure that health assessments are followed by government treatment to correct any readiness deficiencies discovered at the screenings, creating a more medically and dentally ready deployable force.  In addition, it would help limit the time diverted for medical and dental treatment during the training intensive alert periods.  Lincoln’s legislation also benefits states in making the force more medically ready for emergency activations at home for which virtually no notice is provided. 

“Prior to the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team’s second deployment to Iraq last year, several members of the 39th were not medically ready for deployment.  As a result, members of 11 units from across the state were pulled to fill out the combat team.  Some of these ‘cross leveled’ members had as little as two or three weeks notice prior to deployment.  We can prevent, in large part, this from happening in the future, but we must provide necessary care at the front end,” Lincoln said.   

Lincoln’s bill is endorsed by the National Guard Association of the United States (NGAUS), the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States (EANGUS), the Association of the United States Navy (AUSN), the Reserve Officers Association (ROA), the U. S. Army Warrant Officers Association (USAWOA), the Association of the United States Army (AUSA), The Retired Enlisted Association (TREA), and the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States (VFW).

Stephen M. Koper, Brigadier General, USAF (Ret.), President of NGAUS, said, “The service of the men and women of the National Guard as an operational force requires them to maintain medical and dental readiness standards for deployment largely at their own expense.  NGAUS strongly supports the Reserve Continuum of Care Act now before the 111th Congress which would require the service Secretaries to provide the necessary care for members of the Select Reserve to ensure medical and dental readiness.  Our young men and women and their families deserve nothing less.”

MSG Michael P. Cline, USA (Ret.), Executive Director of EANGUS, said, “This legislation would better ensure government healthcare treatment to correct medical or dental readiness deficiencies discovered by health assessment screenings.  This would provide a more medically and dentally ready deployable force and would limit time diverted from training.”

Dennis Cullinan, Director of National Legislative Services for the VFW, said, “On behalf of the 2.2 million members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States (VFW) and our Auxiliaries, I am pleased to offer our support for the Selected Reserve Continuum of Care Act, which would provide medical and dental treatment for members of the Guard and Reserve to ensure medical readiness.  The Guard and Reserve have become a larger percentage of the Total Force.  They are essential partners in a wide range of military operations, and it is apparent that the active force cannot sustain the readiness posture to meet our national military strategy without the Guard and Reserve.” 

As part of her series of bills in advance of Memorial Day, Lincoln has introduced legislation to ensure education benefits for National Guard and Reserve members keep pace with the national average cost of tuition.  Later this week, Lincoln will unveil her proposal to address benefit inequities for the survivors of severely disabled veterans.

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