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.

Summary: Expresses the sense of Congress that steps should be taken to ensure that every member of the Selected Reserve of the Ready Reserve and such member's family have health care benefits that are adequate to: (1) ease the member's transition from civilian to full-time military life during a mobilization; (2) minimize the adverse effects of a mobilization on the member's ability to provide adequate health care to his or her family; and (3) improve readiness and retention in the Selected Reserve.Directs the Secretary of Defense to contract with a federally funded research and development center to study the health care benefit needs of such members and their families and to issue a report that shall include recommended options for extending health care benefits under the Defense Health Program or the Federal Employee Health benefits program to cover such members.

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.