Leahy Hits House Leaders
For Dropping TRICARE Health Insurance
For Guard And Reserve Members

BACKGROUND

On Monday (May 23) House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) exercised a rarely used power to drop a bipartisan committee-approved provision from the panel’s version of the FY 2006 Defense Authorization Bill that would have made the TRICARE Reserve Select program available to every member of the Guard and Reserve.

Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), co-chair of the House National Guard and Reserve Components Caucus, sponsored the committee amendment to expand eligibility for the recently established program.  The amendment was adopted last week on a bipartisan basis during the committee’s markup, with seven Republicans joining 25 of the committee's Democratic members. 

Congress over the past four years has considered making the military’s TRICARE insurance program available to reservists on a cost-share basis.  After the Administration failed in 2003 to implement a congressionally approved program to allow unemployed reservists to opt into TRICARE coverage, a more limited program was started in April that tied eligibility to time on active duty during a military contingency.

A bipartisan group of senators led by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) have developed and pushed the legislative effort to open up TRICARE to reservists.  More than two-thirds of the Senate has voted over the past two years for their legislation to offer full eligibility to any member of the Guard and Reserve who is participating in drills.   

The House in recent years has largely remained silent on the health insurance needs of the Guard and Reserve.  The Taylor amendment would have marked the first time that the House had a comparable version of the Senate’s TRICARE legislation for Guard and Reserve members.  Chairman Hunter's decision to remove the provision from the committee's version before floor debate decreases the likelihood that the TRICARE Select Reserve program will be expanded this year. 

LEAHY REACTION

Leahy, a leading member of the coalition that is pushing the broader TRICARE health insurance legislation and who co-chairs the Senate National Guard Caucus, criticized the rule to prevent a vote on the TRICARE amendment:

“Our Guard and Reserves are doing front-line duty, but they are getting second-class health insurance.  They are doing more than their fair share in defending the country and taking on the burden of combat in Iraq.  They deserve far better than this arrogant treatment.  Affordable health insurance is vital for the readiness of our reserves, just as it is for the rest of our troops.  This amendment has solid bipartisan support, and the House should not be prevented from considering it.  I hope Chairman Hunter and the House Republican leadership will reconsider the high-handed removal of this amendment and will allow the entire House to vote.”      

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For reference, from CongressDaily PM, Monday, May 23, 2005 

DEFENSE:  Hunter Removes Tricare Provision From Defense Measure

         House Armed Services Chairman Hunter has employed a rarely used authority to strike a provision in the committee-passed $441.6 billion defense authorization bill that would have opened the military's Tricare healthcare system to all National Guard members and reservists. The provision, one of only a handful of Democrat victories during the 14-hour markup last week, would push the military's mandatory spending levels beyond those allowed under the FY06 budget resolution. The bill is scheduled for floor consideration Wednesday. "I have consulted the chairman of the Budget Committee on this matter, and he informs me that if the bill is brought forward to the floor in violation of the Budget Act, he will exercise his prerogative to raise the applicable point of order and thus prevent its consideration on the floor," Hunter wrote in a Friday memo to the committee. After the committee's markup, Hunter asked and received unanimous consent to alter the bill if mandatory spending limits exceeded allowed limits. The vote is routine for the committee, but the authority has not been used in at least the last five years, said a House aide.

     Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., sponsored the Tricare amendment, which passed Wednesday night on a 32-30 vote despite opposition from Hunter and other leading committee Republicans. The next day, Hunter asked the CBO to estimate the price tag for Taylor's amendment. In a Friday memo to Hunter, CBO said the amendment would cost the military roughly $230 million in FY06, and $4.6 billion through 2010. It also would skew average costs for the Federal Employees Health Benefits program because many of the 120,000 Guardsmen and reservists who work for the federal government would shift to the less expensive Tricare system. The shift would cause a spike in FEHB premiums, forcing the government to increase its per capita costs. Costs for employees enrolled in FEHB would decrease by $340 million through 2010, while the cost of retiree benefits would grow by $94 million over the same period, according to CBO.

     In a statement today, Taylor said many of the problems with the amendment could be solved by prohibiting federally employed reservists from dropping FEHB for Tricare coverage. Taylor plans to submit a revised amendment to the Rules Committee that would include that prohibition, his spokeswoman said. "The bottom line is that this is a technicality that could easily be resolved if the chairman wanted to get it resolved," Taylor said in a statement.

     Several military organizations are backing the Taylor amendment and mobilizing their members. The National Guard Association of the United States plans to issue a legislative alert to its members later today, urging them to contact their representatives. The organization also is drafting letters to Hunter and Rules Chairman Dreier, said Michele Trafficante, who works in legislative affairs at the Guard association. An estimated 80 percent of Guardsmen and reservists already have access to non-military healthcare programs. During the markup, Hunter said the measure would lead to a "gaming" of the Tricare system, giving employers a way to drop these so-called weekend warriors from their healthcare rolls and stick the government with the bill.    -- by Megan Scully