Stripes: Would extending Tricare coverage take guns out of troops' hands?

[lebkuchen]

Extending federal health care to all drilling reservists would be so expensive that it could take guns out of troops’ hands, a former Defense Department financial expert said Wednesday.

But reservist lobbying groups, which have been pushing for the coverage, called the comments scare tactics that miss the importance of the health care expansion.

<cut>

At issue is a provision in the next year’s defense authorization bill, currently under consideration in the Senate.

In the spring, members of the House Armed Services Committee approved an amendment providing access to Tricare to all reserve and guard troops preparing for active duty, but chairman Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., struck the proposal before it reached a vote before the full House, citing excessive costs.

On Wednesday, during a hearing before the committee, former Defense Department comptroller Dov Zakheim said paying for the health care expansion — estimated at about $3.8 billion over the next five years — would “eat into the acquisition budget … we’re taking weapons out of everybody’s hands.”

<cut>

But Louis Leto, spokesman for the Reserve Officers Association, said military officials can’t afford to drop the proposal.

“You’re not going to have the soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines to serve in the first place if we don’t address their health care needs,” he said. “We see this as a recruiting and retention issue.”


http://army.laser.net/article.asp?article=31609§ion=104