In decades past, the U.S. military discouraged family members from joining loved ones on “unaccompanied” year-long tours to places such as South Korea, Okinawa and Guam.
“Non-command-sponsored” dependents who traveled along on these assignments often were seen as a distraction and a strain on support services. Some got the cold shoulder from commands and received only limited access to medical care, base shopping or other amenities.
The signals sent today to non-command-sponsored dependents are more positive, though still mixed. The warmest change perhaps is in South Korea, where Army Gen. B. B. Bell runs three major commands, including the 30,000-member U.S. Forces Korea.
Like his predecessor, retired Gen. Leon J. LaPorte, Bell is doing what he can to make both command- and non-command-sponsored families feel welcome, said Col. (Dr.) James Gregory Jolissaint, commander of the 18th Medical Command and the 121st General Hospital in Yongsan, South Korea.
The availability of Army housing dictates how many families receive command-sponsored status, Jolissaint said, and the number is about 1,500. Yet several thousand more “non-command-sponsored” families also are living in South Korea.
They paid their own travel costs and live without the benefit of “with-dependents” housing or cost-of-living allowances.
“In olden days, if you weren’t command-sponsored, you couldn’t get a ration card,” Jolissaint said. “You couldn’t access other services on post. Now we are treating these folks as if they are command-sponsored. They get their ID cards. They can come on post. They can use the PX (post exchange). They can use the commissary. They have access to all services. They just can’t get housing on post, and there’s the Tricare Prime issue.”
In April 2005, William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs, clarified in a memo to the services that department policy bans enrollment of non-command-sponsored dependents in Tricare Prime programs overseas.
Citing “differing interpretations” that exist across overseas regions, Winkenwerder wrote that, except in few select circumstances, only active-duty family members who are command-sponsored, as defined by travel orders, are eligible for the Tricare Overseas Program Prime or the Tricare Global Remote Overseas program.
Some commands overseas howled in protest. The policy would disrupt medical benefits for many families, they said, though Winkenwerder noted that these families would remain eligible for Tricare Standard, the military’s fee-for-service insurance; for Tricare Plus, which offers discounts for using network physicians; and for space-available care on the bases.
Two months later, Winkenwerder agreed to delay the policy crackdown until Oct. 1, 2005, and to allow a grandfather clause. Non-command-sponsored families who enrolled before Oct. 1 can stay enrolled until members complete current overseas assignments.
Tricare officials said the tougher policy isn’t meant to punish or to discourage non-command-sponsored families. It’s to emphasize that families should have their medical needs screened and matched to available services overseas before they consider a non-command move.
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