Trump Sent the Guard to the Coronavirus Front Line but Denied Them Military Care

[babylonsister]

Trump Sent the Guard to the Coronavirus Front Line but Denied Them Military Care
LETTING YOUR GUARD DOWN
Almost 20,000 Guardsmen are on orders that keep them ineligible for the Pentagon’s TRICARE system—right as mass unemployment wipes away health care for millions.
Spencer Ackerman, Senior Nat’l Security Correspondent
Updated Apr. 04, 2020 5:55AM ET / Published Apr. 04, 2020 5:06AM ET


Thousands of National Guardsmen around the country are in contact with people who’ve contracted COVID-19. But while the federal government has called on them for frontline assistance in battling the pandemic, it’s not giving them what they need to protect themselves: access to the military’s health insurance.

The approximately 20,000 guardsmen who have been called up to help states around the country deal with the spread of the coronavirus are federalized on what’s called Title 32 status, which puts them in command of their various state governors but with the federal government paying costs.

But according to the National Guard’s advocates and the U.S. governors’ association, the guardsmen are activated on orders that last 30 days. That puts them one single day shy of the requirement allowing the military health insurance system known as TRICARE—think of it as Medicare For All In Uniform—to cover them. Military Times first reported the eligibility shortfall.

It’s an urgent problem for guardsmen now that the pandemic-spurred economic collapse has exposed the folly of the current system of employer-provided health insurance. Some proportion of the guardsmen who may expose themselves to COVID-19 will have lost their jobs, and more surely will in the weeks to come.

more...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-sent-the-guard-to-the-coronavirus-front-line-but-denied-them-military-care?ref=home

[underpants]

1. TRICARE is Sweeeet too

He’s an a hole.

[SheltieLover]

2. Outraged, but not surprised

He cut off his own nephew's sick baby from healthcare coverage. 🤬

[link:https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/what-sort-of-man-is-donald-trump|

[C_U_L8R]

3. One day short. That's how the Trumps roll.

What evil fuckers.

[Victor_c3]

4. A little off topic, but employer-sponsored healthcare was mentioned

Hopefully this pandemic will show the masses how asinine our current employer-sponsored healthcare system is. I hope this will push lawmakers to finally make a single payer or socialized medical system happen.

[Mc Mike]

5. That sounds about right. Par for the Rump course.