June 17, 2024

Duckworth-Led Provision to Improve Access to High-Quality Medical Care for Servicemembers and Military Families Included in Committee-Passed NDAA

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)—who served in the Reserve Forces for 23 years and is a member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC)—secured an important provision in the SASC-passed Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) aimed at improving medical readiness within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and ensuring our nation’s servicemembers as well as their families have access to quality patient care throughout the Indo-Pacific region—where they often must to travel long distances to receive care—both during peacetime and in the event of a conflict abroad. This provision secured by the Senator mirrors her Access to Care for Overseas Military Act and, if enacted into law, would help 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.

“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 pleased my provision to help do more to fix this was included in the NDAA that our committee passed last week.”

Senator Duckworth’s provision 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. 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 provision 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.

In April, Senator Duckworth secured support on the legislation that this provision is based on from DoD Secretary Lloyd Austin during a SASC hearing. Full video of Senator Duckworth’s remarks and their exchange can be found on YouTube.

“I agree with you,” said Secretary Austin in response to Senator Duckworth’s questioning during the April hearing. “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 November 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. 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.

Additionally, Duckworth successfully secured several important provisions in the committee-passed FY2025 NDAA that will support our servicemembers, expand access to IVF for military families, improve logistics to bolster readiness and continue to restore American competitiveness through improving access to cutting-edge technology.

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 month, Duckworth led a bipartisan Congressional Delegation to Taiwan and this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore to underscore strong U.S. bipartisan support for our partners and allies in the Indo-Pacific and strengthen our ties in the region. Last year, Duckworth also 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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