"We haven't changed benefits for the Guard and Reserve in a major way for the last 30 years," Graham said while announcing changes to the federally administered TRICARE military health insurance. "A Cold War benefit model will not serve the Guard and Reserve in the war on terror well."
Graham and Clinton pushed for the changes, which were incorporated into last year's defense authorization bill. The changes went into effect Tuesday.
TRICARE previously was available only to active military personnel. Now those in the Guard and Reserves with more than 90 consecutive days of active duty since Sept. 11, 2001, are eligible for one year of TRICARE coverage for themselves and their immediate family members. Every additional 90 days of consecutive service makes such soldiers eligible for another year of TRICARE.
Graham said more than 428,000 Guard members and reservists nationwide have been called up for more than 90 days since Sept. 11 due to increasing needs of the all-volunteer military. About 40 percent of the force in Iraq is made up of Guard and Reserve members, Clinton said.
As of last month, there were 8,883 enlisted in South Carolina's Army National Guard and 1,164 in the state's Air National Guard, according to John Goheen, a spokesman for the National Guard Association. They would be eligible to take advantage of the TRICARE changes if they have enough service under their belts.
TRICARE will cost the newly eligible soldiers $75 per month and $233 per month if they want to insure their family members.
The soldiers' payments account only for about one-fourth of the cost to insure them. The DOD will cover the remaining 75 percent at a cost of about $150 million per year.
Clinton said the costs to soldiers were reasonable.
"I think it's fair to say that a family policy for less than $3,000 a year is not available in many parts of the country," Clinton said.
Nevertheless, Graham and Clinton are looking to make TRICARE even more readily available. They'd like to do away with the 90-day requirement.
"Our goal this year," Graham said, "is to extend TRICARE to all Guard and reservists completely."
Insuring every guardsman and reserve member would cost the federal government $3.8 billion over five years, he said.
Graham pointed out that about 20 percent of those called to active duty from the Guard and Reserve can't be deployed because of health care problems. He said enrollment in TRICARE would help reduce those problems and strengthen the force.
"Many of them don't have health care when they're back at home," Clinton said. "We pay a price because of the numbers who are not ready to be deployed."