Senators offer plan to cover reservists' healthcare costs

An unlikely alliance including Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Tuesday announced a joint effort to come up with a way to better provide health coverage to members of the military reserves and the National Guard and their families.

"This is an issue every one of us hears about every week at home," said Clinton of National Guard members and reservists who either lack insurance in their everyday lives, or lose their family's coverage when they are called up. "This is a bipartisan coalition you may never see again, so enjoy it," cracked Graham, who was himself called to active duty during the first Persian Gulf War.

Daschle Monday night offered a version of the proposal as an amendment to the fiscal 2004 Defense authorization bill. It would make all members of the Guard and Army Reserve and their families eligible for TRICARE, the military's health insurance program, with the federal government paying the same share it pays for workers in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan.

It would also help pay to keep private coverage for families when the head of the family is mobilized. The Senate Tuesday afternoon approved, 85-10, a compromise version of the measure Daschle said merged his plan with Graham's proposal. Graham's original plan would have funneled more families into TRICARE, at a lower cost for the families, but a higher one for the government.

The agreement used Graham's more generous government contribution, but kept Daschle's provision allowing a subsidy for families that elect to keep their private coverage. "Not only will it make health care more affordable for Reserve and Guard members and their families, but it will help recruitment efforts and reduce the chance that a Guard or Reserve unit could not deploy because too many of its members had health problems," Daschle said.