{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://trentkelly.house.gov/newsroom/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=5314", "Reps Kim and Kelly Introduce Bill to Expand No-Fee Healthcare for Reserve and National Guard\n\nMay 25, 2021 | Posted in Press Releases\n\nTags:\nNational Defense / Veterans, \r\n              Healthcare\n\n\nWASHINGTON, DC \u2013 Today, Congressman Andy Kim (NJ-03) and Congressman Trent Kelly (MS-01) introduced the Healthcare for our Troops Act, a bill that would make no-fee healthcare available to the over 800,000 Americans serving our nation in the Reserve and National Guard. The bipartisan bill is co-sponsored by the two co-chairs of the National Guard and Reserve Caucus, Congressman Tim Ryan\u2026 Read more \u00bb", "2021-05-25", "2021", "2021-05", "Republican", "House", "MS", "Trent Kelly", "K000388", "trentkelly.house.gov", "trentkelly", "https://trentkelly.house.gov/newsroom/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 Today, Congressman Andy Kim (NJ-03) and Congressman Trent Kelly (MS-01) introduced the Healthcare for our Troops Act, a bill that would make no-fee healthcare available to the over 800,000 Americans serving our nation in the Reserve and National Guard. The bipartisan bill is co-sponsored by the two co-chairs of the National Guard and Reserve Caucus, Congressman Tim Ryan (OH-13) and Congressman Steven Palazzo (MS-04), as well as Congressman Scott DesJarlais (TN-04), Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (NY-21) and Congressman Marc Veasey (TX-33).\n\n\u201cAmericans who wear the uniform and protect our nation should not be without healthcare. It\u2019s that simple,\u201d said Congressman Kim. \u201cWe owe our Reservists and National Guard so much, and this bill fulfills a basic bipartisan promise: that we will be there for them as they are there for us every day to keep our country safe. I want to thank Congressman Kelly for his partnership on this mission to make sure that every one of our Reservists and National Guard members has the health care they deserve. I look forward to working with our colleagues across the aisle to get this across the finish line and deliver for those who serve.\u201d\n\nThe bill would ensure that every member of the Reserves and National Guard, including the roughly 130,000 members who don't have private health insurance, can access TRICARE Reserve Select at no cost. The bill also addresses a recent call by the head of the National Guard Bureau, Army General Daniel Hokanson, for no-cost healthcare for every member of the National Guard. General Hokanson called the issue, \u201cone of my most pressing concerns.\u201d\n\n\u201cFrom being deployed nonstop, protecting our nation\u2019s capital, and handling pandemic relief efforts, we witnessed an unprecedented use of our military,\u201d said Congressman Kelly. \u201cCurrent bureaucratic policies prevent some of our service members from having the same healthcare benefits as their counterparts on active-duty. Providing health care for all service members is a readiness issue that is easily fixed. Our Guardsmen and Reservists deserve to have access to preventive and routine healthcare. The Healthcare for our Troops Act ensures that no military member will have to worry about paying for medical bills.\u201d\n\nSpecifically, if enacted, the Healthcare for our Troops Act would:\n\n\u2022 Ensure Reservists and National Guard members have no-fee healthcare through TRICARE Reserve Select that covers medical and dental coverage\n\n\u2022 Increases military readiness by ensuring service members can access physicals needed to be ready for no-notice deployments which have increased over the past year\n\n\u2022 Provide an incentive for small businesses to hire Reserve and National Guard members by ensuring their healthcare costs are covered\n\n\u2022 Require a study on eliminating annual physicals during drill and replacing them with forms to be completed by civilian providers to assess medical readiness--giving commanders back valuable training days and saving over $162 Million annually in contracted medical assessments\n\n\u2022 Eliminate the statutory language that excludes Federal Employees Health Benefits Program eligible service members from TRICARE Reserve Select eligibility.\n\n\u2022 Fix the parity gap for Reserve Component retirees receiving early retirement pay due to deployment credits making them eligible for TRICARE upon receipt of retirement pay\n\n\u201cAs a Cochair of the National Guard and Reserve Caucus, I could not be more proud of the work that these service members have done for our country \u2013 especially over this last year,\u201d said Congressman Ryan. \u201cBut back-to-back deployments, whether overseas or here at home, take their toll. This legislation represents a huge step forward in making sure our citizen Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors, and Marines not only have access to the health care they need to take care of themselves, but also to do their jobs. I\u2019m honored to support this bill,\u201d\n\n\u201cI am proud to support the Tricare Reserve Select expansion bill, to ensure that our National Guard and Reserve members are not over-paying for the healthcare they deserve. As a Mississippi National Guardsman and Co-chair of the National Guard and Reserve Caucus, I can attest to how this legislation improves Tricare by increasing affordability and retention rates,\u201d said Congressman Palazzo. \u201cThis year, we saw our National Guardsmen and Reservists drop everything to serve this country. They have had our backs, this bill helps us have theirs.\u201d\n\nThis bill has the support of: National Guard Association of the U.S. (NGAUS), Military Officers Association of America (MOAA), Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the U.S. (EANGUS), Association of the United States Army (AUSA), Chief Warrant Officers Association of the U.S. Coast Guard, Naval Enlisted Reserve Association, Reserve Organization of America (formerly Reserve Officers Association), Air Force Sergeants Association, VoteVets, and the Wounded Warrior Project.\n\n###", 1, "2026-04-07T14:16:54Z", "2026-04-07T14:20:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://trentkelly.house.gov/newsroom/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=5314"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7968090940266848, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}