Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB2730 Compare Versions

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11 I
22 119THCONGRESS
33 1
44 STSESSION H. R. 2730
55 To include pregnancy and loss of pregnancy as qualifying life events under
66 the TRICARE program and to require a study on maternal health
77 in the military heath system, and for other purposes.
88 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
99 APRIL8, 2025
1010 Ms. M
1111 ACE(for herself, Ms. STEFANIK, Mr. WITTMAN, and Mr. TURNERof
1212 Ohio) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
1313 on Armed Services
1414 A BILL
1515 To include pregnancy and loss of pregnancy as qualifying
1616 life events under the TRICARE program and to require
1717 a study on maternal health in the military heath system,
1818 and for other purposes.
1919 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
2020 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
2121 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
2222 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Military Moms Act’’. 4
2323 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 5
2424 In this Act: 6
2525 (1) C
2626 OVERED BENEFICIARY ; DEPENDENT; 7
2727 TRICARE PROGRAM .—The terms ‘‘covered bene-8
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3131 ficiary’’, ‘‘dependent’’, and ‘‘TRICARE program’’ 1
3232 have the meanings given those terms in section 1072 2
3333 of title 10, United States Code. 3
3434 (2) M
3535 ATERNAL HEALTH .—The term ‘‘maternal 4
3636 health’’ means care during labor, birthing, prenatal 5
3737 care, and postpartum care. 6
3838 (3) M
3939 ATERNITY CARE DESERT .— The term 7
4040 ‘‘maternity care desert’’ means a county in the 8
4141 United States that does not have— 9
4242 (A) a hospital or birth center offering ob-10
4343 stetric care; or 11
4444 (B) an obstetric provider. 12
4545 (4) P
4646 RENATAL CARE .—The term ‘‘prenatal 13
4747 care’’ means medical care provided to maintain and 14
4848 improve fetal and maternal health during pregnancy. 15
4949 (5) S
5050 ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 16
5151 the Secretary of Defense. 17
5252 SEC. 3. MODIFICATION OF QUALIFYING LIFE EVENTS. 18
5353 (a) I
5454 NGENERAL.—Not later than one year after the 19
5555 date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall— 20
5656 (1) update the list of qualifying life events 21
5757 under the TRICARE program to include pregnancy 22
5858 and loss of pregnancy; and 23
5959 (2) issue guidance to covered beneficiaries de-24
6060 scribing the documentation required to make enroll-25
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6464 ment changes under the TRICARE program due to 1
6565 such qualifying life events, such as written confirma-2
6666 tion from a medical provider confirming a pregnancy 3
6767 or loss of pregnancy. 4
6868 (b) P
6969 ROHIBITION.—This section shall not apply to a 5
7070 covered beneficiary who seeks to claim an abortion as a 6
7171 qualifying life event. 7
7272 (c) D
7373 EFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
7474 (1) A
7575 BORTION.—The term ‘‘abortion’’ means 9
7676 the use or prescription of any instrument, medicine, 10
7777 drug, or other substance or device to intentionally— 11
7878 (A) kill the unborn child of a woman 12
7979 known to be pregnant; or 13
8080 (B) prematurely terminate the pregnancy 14
8181 of a woman known to be pregnant, with an in-15
8282 tention other than to— 16
8383 (i) increase the probability of a live 17
8484 birth or preserve the life or health of the 18
8585 child after a live birth; 19
8686 (ii) remove a dead unborn child; or 20
8787 (iii) treat an ectopic pregnancy. 21
8888 (2) L
8989 OSS OF PREGNANCY .—The term ‘‘loss of 22
9090 pregnancy’’ means miscarriage or stillbirth. 23
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9494 SEC. 4. REPORT ON ACCESS TO MATERNAL HEALTH CARE 1
9595 WITHIN THE MILITARY HEALTH SYSTEM. 2
9696 (a) I
9797 NGENERAL.—Not later than two years after the 3
9898 date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall sub-4
9999 mit to the Committee on Armed Services and the Com-5
100100 mittee on Appropriations of the Senate and the Committee 6
101101 on Armed Services and the Committee on Appropriations 7
102102 of the House of Representatives a report on access to ma-8
103103 ternal health care within the military health system for 9
104104 covered beneficiaries during the preceding two-year period. 10
105105 (b) C
106106 ONTENTS.—The report required under sub-11
107107 section (a) shall include the following: 12
108108 (1) With respect to military medical treatment 13
109109 facilities, the following: 14
110110 (A) An analysis of the availability of ma-15
111111 ternal health care for covered beneficiaries who 16
112112 access the military health system through such 17
113113 facilities. 18
114114 (B) An identification of staffing shortages 19
115115 in positions relating to maternal health and 20
116116 childbirth, including obstetrician-gynecologists, 21
117117 certified nurse midwives, and labor and delivery 22
118118 nurses. 23
119119 (C) A description of specific challenges 24
120120 faced by covered beneficiaries in accessing ma-25
121121 ternal health care at such facilities. 26
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125125 (D) An analysis of the timeliness of access 1
126126 to maternal health care, including wait times 2
127127 for and travel times to appointments. 3
128128 (E) A description of how such facilities 4
129129 track patient satisfaction with maternal health 5
130130 services. 6
131131 (F) A process to establish continuity of 7
132132 prenatal care and postpartum care for covered 8
133133 beneficiaries who experience a permanent 9
134134 change of station during a pregnancy. 10
135135 (G) An identification of barriers with re-11
136136 gard to continuity of prenatal care and 12
137137 postpartum care during permanent changes of 13
138138 station. 14
139139 (H) A description of military-specific 15
140140 health challenges impacting covered bene-16
141141 ficiaries who receive maternal health care at 17
142142 military medical treatment facilities, and a de-18
143143 scription of how the Department tracks such 19
144144 challenges. 20
145145 (I) For the 10-year period preceding the 21
146146 date of the submission of the report, the 22
147147 amount of funds annually expended— 23
148148 (i) by the Department of Defense on 24
149149 maternal health care; and 25
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153153 (ii) by covered beneficiaries on out-of- 1
154154 pocket costs associated with maternal 2
155155 health care. 3
156156 (J) An identification of each medical facil-4
157157 ity of the Department of Defense located in a 5
158158 maternity care desert. 6
159159 (K) Recommendations and legislative pro-7
160160 posals— 8
161161 (i) to address staffing shortages that 9
162162 impact the positions described in subpara-10
163163 graph (B); 11
164164 (ii) to improve the delivery and avail-12
165165 ability of maternal health services through 13
166166 military medical treatment facilities and 14
167167 improve patient experience; and 15
168168 (iii) to improve continuity of prenatal 16
169169 care and postpartum care for covered bene-17
170170 ficiaries during a permanent change of sta-18
171171 tion. 19
172172 (2) With respect to providers within the 20
173173 TRICARE program network that are not located at 21
174174 or affiliated with a military medical treatment facil-22
175175 ity, the following: 23
176176 (A) An analysis of the availability of ma-24
177177 ternal health care for covered beneficiaries who 25
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181181 access the military health system through such 1
182182 providers. 2
183183 (B) An identification of staffing shortages 3
184184 for such providers in positions relating to ma-4
185185 ternal health and childbirth, including obstetri-5
186186 cian-gynecologists, certified nurse midwives, and 6
187187 labor and delivery nurses. 7
188188 (C) A description of specific challenges 8
189189 faced by covered beneficiaries in accessing ma-9
190190 ternal health care from such providers. 10
191191 (D) An analysis of the timeliness of access 11
192192 to maternal health care, including wait times 12
193193 for and travel times to appointments. 13
194194 (E) A description of how such providers 14
195195 track patient satisfaction with maternal health 15
196196 services. 16
197197 (F) A process to establish continuity of 17
198198 prenatal care and postpartum care for covered 18
199199 beneficiaries who experience a permanent 19
200200 change of station during a pregnancy. 20
201201 (G) An identification of barriers with re-21
202202 gard to continuity of prenatal care and 22
203203 postpartum care during permanent changes of 23
204204 station. 24
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208208 (H) The number of dependents who choose 1
209209 to access maternal health care through such 2
210210 providers. 3
211211 (I) For the 10-year period preceding the 4
212212 date of the submission of the report, the 5
213213 amount of funds annually expended— 6
214214 (i) by the Department of Defense on 7
215215 maternal health care; and 8
216216 (ii) by covered beneficiaries on out-of- 9
217217 pocket costs associated with maternal 10
218218 health care. 11
219219 (J) Recommendations and legislative pro-12
220220 posals— 13
221221 (i) to address staffing shortages that 14
222222 impact the positions described in subpara-15
223223 graph (B); 16
224224 (ii) to improve the delivery and avail-17
225225 ability of maternal health services through 18
226226 the TRICARE program and improve pa-19
227227 tient experience; 20
228228 (iii) to improve continuity of prenatal 21
229229 care and postpartum care for covered bene-22
230230 ficiaries during a permanent change of sta-23
231231 tion; and 24
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235235 (iv) to improve the ability of contrac-1
236236 tors under the TRICARE program to build 2
237237 a larger network of providers for maternal 3
238238 health, including obstetrician-gynecologists, 4
239239 certified nurse midwives, and labor and de-5
240240 livery nurses. 6
241241 SEC. 5. UPDATES TO MILITARY ONESOURCE PROGRAM. 7
242242 (a) I
243243 NGENERAL.—Not later than one year after the 8
244244 date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall pub-9
245245 lish on a publicly available website of the Military 10
246246 OneSource program of the Department of Defense a dedi-11
247247 cated webpage that includes a comprehensive guide of re-12
248248 sources available to covered beneficiaries, including— 13
249249 (1) a list of maternal health services that are 14
250250 available to covered beneficiaries under the 15
251251 TRICARE program and at military medical treat-16
252252 ment facilities; 17
253253 (2) information on mental health counseling, 18
254254 pregnancy counseling, and other prepartum and 19
255255 postpartum services, including what services are re-20
256256 portable or non-reportable for members of the 21
257257 Armed Forces; 22
258258 (3) information on prenatal development, in-23
259259 cluding anticipated prenatal appointments and avail-24
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263263 able care for covered beneficiaries during prenatal 1
264264 development; 2
265265 (4) information on— 3
266266 (A) organizations that provide services and 4
267267 other resources to assist covered beneficiaries 5
268268 with maternal health needs and pregnancy sup-6
269269 port services located at, or in vicinity of, mili-7
270270 tary installations; and 8
271271 (B) Federal, State, and local maternal 9
272272 health care resources that are either covered by 10
273273 the TRICARE program or could otherwise be 11
274274 made available to a covered beneficiary; 12
275275 (5) information on resources to assist covered 13
276276 beneficiaries who are pregnant with anticipated 14
277277 changes and health challenges that result from preg-15
278278 nancy, including information on anticipated post-16
279279 natal appointments, available postnatal care for cov-17
280280 ered beneficiaries, and post-birth instructions spe-18
281281 cific to covered beneficiaries; 19
282282 (6) information on financial assistance available 20
283283 to covered beneficiaries to support pregnancy needs; 21
284284 (7) a best practice guide for smooth continuity 22
285285 of pregnancy care during a permanent change of 23
286286 station; and 24
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290290 (8) information specific to pregnant members of 1
291291 the Armed Forces, including leave options and regu-2
292292 lations, career field specific information and restric-3
293293 tions, physical fitness requirements, and uniform re-4
294294 sources and requirements. 5
295295 (b) L
296296 IMITATIONS.—The guide required by subsection 6
297297 (a) may not include information, references, or resources 7
298298 on abortion. 8
299299 (c) T
300300 RAINING.—The Secretary shall provide training 9
301301 to military and family life counselors available through the 10
302302 Military OneSource program on addressing the non-med-11
303303 ical needs of covered beneficiaries who are pregnant. 12
304304 (d) N
305305 OTIFICATION OFPREGNANCY.—The Secretary 13
306306 shall notify the head of the Military OneSource program 14
307307 when a covered beneficiary makes the Secretary aware of 15
308308 a pregnancy. 16
309309 (e) P
310310 LAN.—Not later than 540 days after the date 17
311311 of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall develop 18
312312 and submit to Congress a plan for the Secretary to dis-19
313313 seminate to beneficiaries of the Military OneSource pro-20
314314 gram the guide required by subsection (a). 21
315315 Æ
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