[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 92 (Thursday, June 28, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7087-S7088]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. LEAHY (for himself, Mr. DeWine, Mr. Daschle, Mr. Cochran, 
        Mrs. Carnahan, Ms. Snowe, and Mr. Johnson):
  S. 1119. A bill to require the Secretary of Defense to carry out a 
study of the extent to the coverage of members of the Selected Reserve 
of the Ready Reserve of the Armed Forces under health benefits plans 
and to submit a report on the study of Congress, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on Armed Services.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce important 
legislation that will impact the health and readiness of the Selected 
Reserve. The Selected Reserves includes over 900,000 dedicated men and 
women divided between the National Guard and the Reserves. Over the 
past ten years, this force has become increasingly critical to carrying 
out our Nation's defense, whether deploying to far-flung regions of the 
globe or backfilling for other units making those deployments.
  The country simply cannot meet its commitments without these proud 
citizen-soldiers. It follows, then, that steps to increase the 
readiness of the Selected Reserves will have a positive effect on the 
readiness of the entire force. It was this goal in mind that I 
introduce the Health Care for Selected Reserve Act.
  This legislation will ensure that all members of the drilling 
reserves have adequate health insurance. The legislation acknowledges 
our reserves' continuing contributions to the defense of the Nation and 
expresses the need for full medical coverage. The legislation will 
commission an independent study on the extent of insurance shortfalls 
and examine the feasibility of extending the TRICARE or FEHBP program 
to the reserves.
  Currently, when a member of the Selected Reserve goes on active duty 
over 60 days, they are provided full coverage under the TRICARE Prime 
program conducted through the active military's medical treatment 
facilities. But when reservists are not on active duty, they are left 
to gain insurance through their civilian employers. Like the rest of 
society, most gain adequate coverage through their employers like the 
rest of society, but, mirroring broader shortfalls in the wider 
population, many go without any health coverage at all. This shortfall 
has an even more noticeable affect on the country because it affects 
military readiness.
  There is also an underlying issue of fairness here. It seems wrong to 
me that one week someone can be patrolling the skies over Iraq with 
full coverage and the next week they can have no health coverage at 
all. That situation gives the impression that the National Guard and 
the Reserves are the poorly-paid subcontractor to the active duty 
force. If we really believe in the idea of the Total Force, we cannot 
let these health coverage shortfalls exist.
  I want to thank the other sponsors of this bill for helping me craft 
this bill. Senators DeWine, Daschle, Cochran, Carnahan, Snowe, and 
Johnson are deeply interested in this issue, and I look forward to 
working with them to develop a set of concrete steps to meet this 
problem. I urge the legislation's adoption.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the full text of the bill 
be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 1119

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

       Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) The Selected Reserve of the Ready Reserve of the Armed 
     Forces is the element of the Armed Forces of the United 
     States that has the capability quickly to augment the active 
     duty forces of the Armed Forces successfully in times of 
     crisis.
       (2) The Selected Reserve has been assigned increasingly 
     critical levels of responsibility for carrying out the 
     worldwide military missions of the Armed Forces since the end 
     of the Cold War.
       (3) Members of the Selected Reserve have served proudly as 
     mobilized forces in numerous theaters from Europe to the 
     Pacific and South America, indeed, around the world.
       (4) The active duty forces of the Armed Forces cannot 
     successfully perform all of the national security missions of 
     the Armed Forces without augmentation by the Selected 
     Reserve.
       (5) The high and increasing tempo of activity of the 
     Selected Reserve causes turbulence in the relationships of 
     members of the Selected Reserve with their families, 
     employers, and reserve units.
       (6) The turbulence often results from lengthy, sometimes 
     year-long, absences of the members of the Selected Reserve 
     from their families and their civilian jobs in the 
     performance of military duties necessary for the execution of 
     essential missions.
       (7) Family turbulence includes the difficulties associated 
     with vacillation between coverage of members' families for 
     health care under civilian health benefits plans and coverage 
     under the military health benefits options.
       (8) Up to 200,000 members of the Selected Reserve, 
     including, in particular, self-employed members, do not have 
     adequate health benefits.

     SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

       It is the sense of Congress that steps should be taken to 
     ensure that every member of the Selected Reserve of the Ready 
     Reserve of the Armed Forces and the member's family have 
     health care benefits that are adequate--
       (1) to ease the transition of the member from civilian life 
     to full-time military life during a mobilization of reserve 
     forces;
       (2) to minimize the adverse effects of a mobilization on 
     the member's ability to provide for the member's family to 
     have ready access to adequate health care; and
       (3) to improve readiness and retention in the Selected 
     Reserve.

     SEC. 3. STUDY OF HEALTH CARE BENEFITS COVERAGE FOR MEMBERS OF 
                   THE SELECTED RESERVE.

       (a) Requirement for Study.--The Secretary of Defense shall 
     enter into a contract with a federally funded research and 
     development center to carry out a study of the needs of 
     members of the Selected Reserve of the Ready Reserve of the 
     Armed Forces and their families for health care benefits.
       (b) Report.--(1) Not later than March 1, 2002, the 
     Secretary shall submit a report on the results of the study 
     to Congress.
       (2) The report shall include the following matters:
       (A) Descriptions, and an analysis, of how members of the 
     Selected Reserve and their dependents currently obtain 
     coverage for health care benefits, together with statistics 
     on enrollments in health care benefits plans.
       (B) The percentage of members of the Selected Reserve, and 
     dependents of such members, who are not covered by any health 
     insurance or other health benefits plan, together with the 
     reasons for the lack of coverage.
       (C) Descriptions of the disruptions in health benefits 
     coverage that a mobilization of members of the Selected 
     Reserve causes for the members and their families.
       (D) At least three recommended options for cost-effectively 
     preventing or reducing the disruptions by means of extending 
     health care benefits under the Defense Health Program or the 
     Federal Employees Health Benefits program to all members of 
     the Selected Reserve and their families, together with an 
     estimate of the costs of individual coverage and family 
     coverage under each option.
       (E) A profile of the health status of members of the 
     Selected Reserve and their dependents, together with a 
     discussion of how that profile would affect the cost of 
     providing adequate health benefits coverage for that 
     population of beneficiaries.
       (F) An analysis of the likely effects that providing 
     enhanced health benefits coverage to members of the Selected 
     Reserve and their families would have on recruitment and 
     retention for, and the readiness of, the Selected Reserve.
       (3) In formulating the options to recommend under paragraph 
     (2)(D), the Secretary shall consider an expansion of the 
     TRICARE program or the Federal Employees Health Benefits 
     program to cover the members of the Selected Reserve and 
     their families.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, today I join with several important 
leaders of the Senate's National Guard Caucus to introduce S. 1119, 
which we believe will one day result in improved health care for Guard 
and Reserve members and their families.
  It is appropriate that we introduce this now, during a week in which 
Senate floor debate has focused almost exclusively on health care, with 
several lively discussions about the importance of expanding health 
coverage to the uninsured.
  Unfortunately, Guard members and leaders in South Dakota tell me that 
many of the uninsured serve in the National Guard. Many of them work 
for small businesses that cannot afford to offer health insurance to 
their employees. Some of them have insurance for themselves, but cannot 
afford to insure their dependents.
  Meanwhile, this Nation is utilizing the Guard more heavily than at 
any other time in our Nation's history. During the Cold War, a Guard 
member

[[Page S7088]]

might serve and retire without ever being called to active duty. 
Staring with the Persian Gulf War and continuing to this day in Bosnia, 
Kosovo and Iraq, reservists are serving alongside the active duty 
military during deployments that can last 6 months or more.
  Each of these deployments strains the Guard member's employer, who 
temporarily gives up a valued employee. And it strains individual 
soldiers and their families, even if they have health insurance, 
because employer-provided coverage often lapses during periods of 
active duty.
  The premise of our bill is that health coverage can help the Guard 
attract and retain top-flight personnel and also improve readiness; 
that it can help service members and their families, especially in 
coping with mobilization; and that it can relieve some of the burdens 
faced today by National Guard employers, particularly small businesses.
  This bill lays the groundwork for a solution. S. 1119 would authorize 
a study by a non-government research center to explore the extent of 
the problem and recommend at least three cost-effective solutions, 
including the possibility of opening the TRICARE program or the Federal 
Employees Health Benefits Program to reservists and their families. The 
study would look at disruptions to health coverage caused by 
mobilizations and analyze the likely impact of enhanced health care on 
recruitment and retention.
  We have developed this bill in consultation with the Military 
Coalition and several of its members. I appreciate their concern for 
this problem and their work to help develop a solution. In this regard, 
I would particularly like to acknowledge the role of the Enlisted 
Association of the National Guard of the United States, the Reserve 
Officers Association, the National Guard Association of the United 
States, and the Retired Officers Association.
  I hope and believe that today's bill introduction can be an important 
step toward providing adequate health care for members of the South 
Dakota National Guard and other reservists around the Nation, who do so 
much on behalf of their communities, their States, and this Nation.
                                 ______