Reserve Medical Care. Medical benefits for guardsmen and reservists who are called to active duty change significantly under provisions in this year's authorization act.
Recent changes made reserve component members and their families eligible for medical care up to 90 days before a deployment. A major change in the new act provides for considerably extended coverage after deployment as well. Activated reserve-component servicemembers are now eligible for one year of Tricare Standard coverage for each 90 days of active duty service. Members pay 28 percent of the cost for care, but must agree to stay in the Selected Reserve for their entire period of coverage.
Previously enacted temporary benefits -- including 180 days of transitional health care for activated reservists, waiver of Tricare deductibles for those called to active duty for more than 30 days, and payment of up to 115 percent of Tricare maximum allowable charges -- became permanent under the new act as well.
The act also addresses medical readiness of reservists and guardsmen. It provides for a review of medical and dental readiness of reservists and guardsmen called to active duty.
Guard/Reserve Education Benefits. In the past, education benefits for reserve component troops were considerably below those for active duty troops, even when RC servicemembers were activated for extended periods. That is now changed, based on how long a reserve member is activated.
Members who have been activated more than 90 consecutive days will now receive 40 percent of the active duty monthly rate under the Montgomery G.I. Bill, or $401 a month for those attending school full time.
The rate goes up to $602, 60 percent of the active duty rate, for those activated more than one year. For those reserve component members activated at least two years, the rate jumps to 80 percent of the active duty rate, or $803 per month. Active duty servicemembers must generally serve at least a three-year enlistment to earn full benefits under the Montgomery G.I. Bill.
Body Armor Reimbursement. After 9/11, and continuing into the Iraq invasion, many military members purchased their own body armor to make up for military shortages. The new law requires the Department of Defense to reimburse military members or their families and friends for such purchases. To be eligible for reimbursement, the equipment must have been purchased between September 11, 2001, and July 31, 2004. The maximum reimbursement is $1,100 per item, and it must be certified as being critical to the "health, protection, or safety" of the military member. Additionally, the item had to be unavailable for military issue. If DoD provides reimbursement, they are authorized to take ownership of the item.
Active Duty End-Strength. The new bill allows the active duty Army to increase in size by 20,000 troops, and the active duty Marine Corps to increase in size by 3,000. The end-strength of the other services remain the same as last year.
- Army -- 502,400
- Air Force -- 359,700
- Navy -- 365,900
- Marine Corps -- 178,000
- Army National Guard -- 350,000
- Army Reserve -- 205,000
- Naval Reserve -- 83,400
- Marine Corps Reserve -- 39,600
- Air National Guard -- 106,800
- Air Force Reserve -- 76,100
- Coast Guard Reserve -- 10,000
Reserve Member Call-up. The act now allows the military services to mobilize their RC members for training. In the past, a common scenario was to activate guardsmen or reservists, send them away from home for training and then deploy them to an operational mission. That often resulted in an 18-month continuous active duty (training, plus deployment).
New rules contained in the authorization act allow RC members to be activated just for training, then demobilized until they're needed for operational missions.
