To amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to add a Medicaid State plan requirement with respect to the determination of residency of certain individuals serving in the Armed Forces.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 8108, a bill that would amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to add a Medicaid State plan requirement regarding the determination of residency of people serving in the armed services.

Medicaid is the primary payer for home and community-based services, serving as the safety net for people with long-term care needs, including military families. Medicaid provides coverage for home and community-based services when other insurers, including TRICARE, do not.

Military families face unique stressors when a family member has a need for home and community-based services and needs to relocate for military service. For example, when a child with disabilities is receiving home and community-based services covered by the Medicaid program in the same State in which they live, there is no guarantee that the child will continue to receive care in the State where the family is being relocated.

In many States, families wait years on a waiting list to receive these services, and once they are finally able to access the care they need, the time may come to move again. Military families in this position may face a difficult choice: Do they keep their family together, knowing that their child may lose access to care in the State in which they are moving, or do they separate the family to ensure their child is able to access the care they need? These are decisions that military families simply should not have to make.

H.R. 8108 would lessen the burden military families face by requiring States to continue to provide Medicaid coverage to dependents of Active-Duty military servicemembers who are receiving Medicaid home and community-based services and must move out of State due to military service. It also allows families that are on waiting lists to maintain their place on those lists so they, too, are not forced to start over.

While H.R. 8108 does not address the many underlying issues with our patchwork long-term care system, including those that have led to the existence of waiting lists, I am pleased that it will help ease some of the challenges that military families face in receiving the care they need.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representatives Kiggans and Kaptur for their leadership on this very important issue, and I encourage my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 8108.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, this is an important bill for individuals serving in the Armed Forces and their families, so I urge my colleagues to vote for it on a bipartisan basis.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 8108) to amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to add a Medicaid State plan requirement with respect to the determination of residency of certain individuals serving in the Armed Forces, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material into the Record on the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mrs. Kiggans for bringing forth such an important solution for our military families.

H.R. 8108 would ensure that military families can maintain access to essential care when they are required to move States for Active Duty.

According to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment Access Commission, as many as 867,000 Medicaid enrollees have primary insurance through TRICARE, including as many as 220,000 children.

In most instances, servicemembers rely on TRICARE as their insurer to cover most of their needs, but for individuals who also have a disability--take, for example, a military family with a child with a disability--Medicaid will often step in to cover additional care, like home and community-based services. Those services help with daily living activities and are essential to keeping people with disabilities healthy and independent in their communities.

Unfortunately, many State Medicaid programs limit access to home and

community-based services and often do so by creating waiting lists. It can take years for a patient to get off the wait list and get the level of care that they need.

For military families who rely on Medicaid to pay for home and community-based services, moving from one State to another requires the family to join the new State's waiting list and start the whole process over again.

H.R. 8108 makes clear that Active-Duty military families required to move across the country for their service to this country cannot lose access to current home and community-based services or lose their spot in line on their home State's waiting list.

These necessary changes will help reaffirm our commitment to our military families who don't need additional hoops to jump through or stress in a time of reassignment.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mrs. Kiggans for her leadership on this important issue. I encourage my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Virginia (Mrs. Kiggans).

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I encourage everyone to vote ``yes'' on this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 8108, the Medicaid State Plan Requirement for Determining Residency of Military Families, that I introduced earlier this year to ensure servicemembers can maintain critical healthcare coverage and medical services for their children no matter where their service takes them.

Americans with disabilities often need long-term care services to help them with everyday activities, such as eating, walking, medical equipment management, and more. TRICARE does not cover long-term care services, leaving military families with children in need of those services to apply for Medicaid. However, Medicaid is operated State by State, which puts individuals and their families at risk of losing services when they leave their State.

This particularly impacts our military families, who frequently transfer locations as part of their commitment to serving our country. As a Navy spouse, mom of four, and a veteran who served for nearly 10 years myself, I know how hard these relocations can be for military families.

Those who serve our country shouldn't have to worry about whether their children will be able to access critical healthcare services when they get to their next duty station.

That is why I introduced the Medicaid State Plan Requirement for Determining Residency of Military Families.

My bipartisan bill would guarantee dependents of Active-Duty servicemembers can continue to receive long-term care services through a State-administered Medicaid plan should their family be stationed in another State.

Our men and women in uniform already sacrifice so much for our country. Their children should never have to forego critical care because of their selfless decision to serve.

I thank Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur for joining me in this important effort, and I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support our bipartisan legislation.