When dealing with a crisis — be it a pandemic or any other significant threat — we believe it’s best to meet it with overwhelming force. So it’s with some alarm that we took the news last week that the Trump administration has moved to end the National Guard’s service helping states mitigate the damage caused by the coronavirus. Come June 24, the more than 40,000 guardsmen deployed nationwide would face a “hard stop” and be told to head home.
There is some evidence that President Donald Trump will grant a short extension. After a slew of lawmakers reacted negatively to the news, Politico reported that the administration is “prepared to extend the deployments through July.” We support that extension and call on state and federal lawmakers to look at what will be needed in the coming months to ensure there are no hiccups as we move to open our economy and work to ensure we can handle anything that comes our way, including a “second wave,” if it comes to that. We recognize there is a cost to deploying the National Guard, but given all of our tools, it’s also among one of the most cost-effective ways we can respond to coronavirus challenges.
Through the crisis, the National Guard has backed up health care workers, set up field hospitals and stepped in to test patients themselves. They have worked to decontaminate nursing homes and help food banks. While, as of now, we may no longer need their assistance in creating field hospitals, the country is still nowhere close to managing the other tasks named, and we need all the support we can get.
There is also something particularly inconvenient about June 24 to end these deployments. While on active duty, members of the National Guard are eligible for regular Tricare health coverage. If they become inactive, they are only eligible for Tricare Reserve Select, which does not cover pharmaceuticals and has higher co-pays, premiums and deductibles. We’d rather see members of the guard covered until the pandemic abates in case they contracted the virus while deployed. We’d also want to ensure they had good health coverage in case we need them to handle a second wave later this year, and many members of the National Guard may be those facing job loss back home.
Without the National Guard deployed, the guardsmen will lose income and various other benefits, and our country will be at a greater disadvantage in our fight against COVID-19. In Texas alone, they have delivered personal protective equipment, restarted formerly closed hospitals and other medical facilities, monitored mobile testing sites, helped set up medical tents, and supported food banks. These are tasks that continue to be fundamental to flattening the curve and aiding our state and country. So we hope our local and federal government hear our plea: Keep the National Guard deployed.
This editorial first appeared in The Dallas Morning News on Thursday. This commentary should be considered another point of view and not necessarily the opinion or editorial policy of The Dominion Post.
