II

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1119

To require the Secretary of Defense to carry out a study of the extent

of 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 to Congress, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JUNE 28, 2001

Mr. LEAHY (for himself, Mr. DEWINE, Mr. DASCHLE, Mr. COCHRAN, Mrs.

CARNAHAN, Ms. SNOWE, and Mr. JOHNSON) introduced the following bill;

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services

A BILL

To require the Secretary of Defense to carry out a study

of the extent of 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 to Congress, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

4 Congress makes the following findings:

5 (1) The Selected Reserve of the Ready Reserve

6 of the Armed Forces is the element of the Armed

7 Forces of the United States that has the capability
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1 quickly to augment the active duty forces of the

2 Armed Forces successfully in times of crisis.

3 (2) The Selected Reserve has been assigned in4 creasingly critical levels of responsibility for carrying

5 out the worldwide military missions of the Armed

6 Forces since the end of the Cold War.

7 (3) Members of the Selected Reserve have

8 served proudly as mobilized forces in numerous thea9 ters from Europe to the Pacific and South America,

10 indeed, around the world.

11 (4) The active duty forces of the Armed Forces

12 cannot successfully perform all of the national secu13 rity missions of the Armed Forces without aug14 mentation by the Selected Reserve.

15 (5) The high and increasing tempo of activity

16 of the Selected Reserve causes turbulence in the re17 lationships of members of the Selected Reserve with

18 their families, employers, and reserve units.

19 (6) The turbulence often results from lengthy,

20 sometimes year-long, absences of the members of the

21 Selected Reserve from their families and their civil22 ian jobs in the performance of military duties nec23 essary for the execution of essential missions.

24 (7) Family turbulence includes the difficulties

25 associated with vacillation between coverage of mem-
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1 bers’ families for health care under civilian health

2 benefits plans and coverage under the military

3 health benefits options.

4 (8) Up to 200,000 members of the Selected Re5 serve, including, in particular, self-employed mem6 bers, do not have adequate health benefits.

7 SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

8 It is the sense of Congress that steps should be taken

9 to ensure that every member of the Selected Reserve of

10 the Ready Reserve of the Armed Forces and the member’s

11 family have health care benefits that are adequate—

12 (1) to ease the transition of the member from

13 civilian life to full-time military life during a mobili14 zation of reserve forces;

15 (2) to minimize the adverse effects of a mobili16 zation on the member’s ability to provide for the

17 member’s family to have ready access to adequate

18 health care; and

19 (3) to improve readiness and retention in the

20 Selected Reserve.

21 SEC. 3. STUDY OF HEALTH CARE BENEFITS COVERAGE FOR

22 MEMBERS OF THE SELECTED RESERVE.

23 (a) REQUIREMENT FOR STUDY.—The Secretary of

24 Defense shall enter into a contract with a federally funded

25 research and development center to carry out a study of
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1 the needs of members of the Selected Reserve of the Ready

2 Reserve of the Armed Forces and their families for health

3 care benefits.

4 (b) REPORT.—(1) Not later than March 1, 2002, the

5 Secretary shall submit a report on the results of the study

6 to Congress.

7 (2) The report shall include the following matters:

8 (A) Descriptions, and an analysis, of how mem9 bers of the Selected Reserve and their dependents

10 currently obtain coverage for health care benefits,

11 together with statistics on enrollments in health care

12 benefits plans.

13 (B) The percentage of members of the Selected

14 Reserve, and dependents of such members, who are

15 not covered by any health insurance or other health

16 benefits plan, together with the reasons for the lack

17 of coverage.

18 (C) Descriptions of the disruptions in health

19 benefits coverage that a mobilization of members of

20 the Selected Reserve causes for the members and

21 their families.

22 (D) At least three recommended options for

23 cost-effectively preventing or reducing the disrup24 tions by means of extending health care benefits

25 under the Defense Health Program or the Federal
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1 Employees Health Benefits program to all members

2 of the Selected Reserve and their families, together

3 with an estimate of the costs of individual coverage

4 and family coverage under each option.

5 (E) A profile of the health status of members

6 of the Selected Reserve and their dependents, to7 gether with a discussion of how that profile would

8 affect the cost of providing adequate health benefits

9 coverage for that population of beneficiaries.

10 (F) An analysis of the likely effects that pro11 viding enhanced health benefits coverage to members

12 of the Selected Reserve and their families would

13 have on recruitment and retention for, and the read14 iness of, the Selected Reserve.

15 (3) In formulating the options to recommend under

16 paragraph (2)(D), the Secretary shall consider an expan17 sion of the TRICARE program or the Federal Employees

18 Health Benefits program to cover the members of the Se19 lected Reserve and their families.

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