One in three troops live in this.
Half of US Military Bases ‘Health Care Deserts’
NPR analysis shows that 50% of all active US military bases fall within federally designated Healthcare Professional Shortage Areas, or areas known as “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 healthcare.”
One in three troops live in a health care desert.
Three out of four bases in primary care deserts are also in either a mental health care desert, a maternal care desert, or both.
The Department of Defense has spent decades trying to bring all four military branches under one health agency, but now admits that their cutbacks have gone too far.