When Our Nation’s Children Become the Victim of Whistleblower Reprisal

Did You Know: National Guard and Reserve leaders engaged in Whistleblower Reprisal can terminate targeted service members and their families’ access to TRICARE medical coverage, sometimes without prior notice and often with traumatic effect. They accomplish this through rapid administrative separations that lack any pretension of due process, sudden transfers to the Retired Reserve, or removal from active-duty orders.

Here are some potential implications of these facts:

1. Given each TRICARE program has specific eligibility criteria and TRICARE has no procedure to continue medical coverage once a service member’s status changes, service members will become immediately responsible for all medical bills until a coverage transfer occurs, which can take weeks.
2. Medical bills for any care, including existing critical hospitalization that can cost upwards of $4,000 per day of care, pregnancy, and cancer treatments will be rejected by the previous TRICARE program.
3. Due to the change in a service member’s medical coverage, TRICARE will cancel all pre-existing treatment approvals. This includes pre-approved treatment plans that may have taken months for approval, or for essential care of pregnant service members and/or their spouses, and life-saving care such as cancer treatment.
4. Targeted service members who must request medical coverage from the Veterans Affairs Administration risk a months-long lapse in coverage and the ensuing financial burden. This risk is especially high for junior service members who often lack financial reserves.
5. Feelings of betrayal, isolation, and violation already present from pre-existing reprisal (10 U.S. Code § 1034) and retaliation (10 U.S. Code § 932 - Art. 132) are exacerbated due to the stress of disrupted medical coverage, with the effect of increased risk of a mental health crisis, including suicidal ideations.
6. Leaders who use administrative processes and administrative punishments to target Whistleblowers can, given the total lack of due process in these systems, refuse to share the evidence they used to make their decisions, refuse to respond to the service member or their legal counsel, if applicable, and refuse to maintain any hint of transparency concerning the timing of a change of status.

A question to ask yourself is if Congress and our military senior leadership will allow these policies, gaps, and seams to exist which can so catastrophically and suddenly endanger the lives and well-being of our service members, their spouses, and especially their children. We must do better.

If you feel that you have been a victim of this "Did You Know" highlight, feel free to reach out privately at [email protected], or share your story in the comments.

Also, SIGN THIS PETITION demanding that our leaders in Congress change this unjust system.??????????????????????????????????

To view this article online, please visit the Walk the Talk Foundation page here: When Our Nation’s Children Become the Victim of Whistleblower Reprisal – Walk the Talk Foundation

LTC Francesca Graham, Army – United States Military Academy, West Point, authored this article.