May 23, 2024

Duckworth Introduces Legislation to Improve Access to High-Quality Medical Care for Servicemembers and Military Families in the Indo-Pacific

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)—a member of both the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC)—introduced legislation to improve medical readiness within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and ensure our nation’s servicemembers and their families have access to quality patient care throughout the Indo-Pacific region—where they often must to travel long distances to receive care—whether during peacetime or in the event of a conflict abroad. Senator Duckworth’s Access to Care for Overseas Military Act would enhance our medical capabilities overseas by enabling our military personnel to access accredited foreign military medical facilities and create a medical readiness strategy in the Indo-Pacific. Equally important, the legislation would also ensure any future foreign hospital that the DoD selects and partners with will either undergo an accreditation process or work with DoD to develop standardization procedures to help ensure that the quality of medical care provided to our servicemembers abroad is the same as a DoD military treatment facility.

“We owe it to the troops we send overseas—and their families—to ensure they have access to the high-quality medical care their sacrifices deserve, both during periods of conflict and in peacetime, whether that means getting injured servicemembers to medical facilities within the ‘golden hour’ wherein lives can still be saved or simply ensuring military families are able to deliver their babies safely,” said Duckworth. “The unfortunate reality is that we are falling short of that obligation in certain regions, including the Indo-Pacific, and far too many servicemembers, dependents and DoD-affiliated civilians find it difficult to access care overseas. That harms our military readiness, and I’m proud to introduce this legislation to help do more to fix it.”

Building on an existing framework that the DoD already has with the Republic of Korea—an agreement that helps servicemembers and their families access quality medical care at over 40 hospitals on the peninsula without worrying about navigating a foreign healthcare system alone—this legislation would address many of the difficulties our troops and military families face in accessing the high-quality medical care they both need and deserve while stationed overseas. This bill’s introduction comes after Senator Duckworth secured support for this effort to build on the Korean framework from DoD Secretary Lloyd Austin during a SASC hearing last month. At the hearing, she told Secretary Austin that she plans to push strongly for this legislation to be included in the Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Full video of Senator Duckworth’s remarks can be found on YouTube.

“I agree with you,” said Secretary Austin in response to Senator Duckworth’s questioning on her proposal to improve DoD medical readiness in the Indo-Pacific region. “I think Korea is a great example from talking to our troops and family members. They really appreciate having the ability to do what you described and take advantage of existing capability.”

In 2023, the DoD Office of Inspector General released a report identifying repeated challenges that servicemembers and their families face when trying to access quality health care in the Indo-Pacific region, including staffing shortages and limited Tricare network providers. For example, an access-to-care issue was so severe in Japan that the chief medical officer at Kadena’s 18th Medical Group issued a memo requiring all patients due to deliver a child from August to December to use a Japanese medical facility or be flown to a CONUS military treatment facility (MTF) due to staffing issues at U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa. At certain military treatment facilities, many servicemembers are also confronted with limited specialty care, such as obstetrics and physical therapy, impacting their quality of life.

A copy of the bill text can be found on Senator Duckworth’s website.

A provision led by U.S. Representative Elissa Slotkin (D-MI-07) that is similar to Senator Duckworth’s legislation was included in the FY2025 NDAA that passed the House Armed Services Committee yesterday. It now heads to the floor to be considered by the full House.

Duckworth is a proven leader when it comes to strengthening our relations with Indo-Pacific nations and improving security in the region—which she has done while successfully securing significant international investments in Illinois. Last year, Duckworth led an official visit to Japan and Indonesia as part of her continuing efforts to strengthen ties and reinforce support between allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region and the United States. And last summer, Duckworth led another official visit to the Indo-Pacific region again, visiting Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines to meet with government and business leaders and discuss opportunities that would increase cooperation in areas of mutual interest, such as economic investments, regional stability and national security.

Duckworth also successfully included a modified version of her Strengthen Taiwan’s Security Act in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to help Taiwan strengthen its military defenses.

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