Half of U.S. military bases in the country are in 'health care deserts'
JUNE 17, 20245:00 AM ET
By
Quil Lawrence
Brent Jones
For hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops and their families, when the Pentagon orders them to find health care off base there is none.
An NPR analysis found that 50% of active duty military installations stand within federally designated health professional shortage areas (HPSA). Those are places where medical services are hard to find — commonly called “health care deserts.”
“Military members often don't have a lot of control over where they're stationed. Certainly their families don't,” says Eileen Huck, with the National Military Family Association.
“It's incumbent on the military to make sure that when you send a family to a location, the support and resources are available to take care of them. And that obviously includes health care,” she says.
https://www.npr.org/2024/06/13/g-s1-4187/military-bases-shortage-health-care-troops-army-navy-marines
