Author name: Common Defense

More Reserve and National Guard troops completing lengthy active duty assignments could receive expanded healthcare coverage under a new War Department policy prompted by a sailor’s class action lawsuit.

Advocates say tens of thousands may qualify for coverage, while thousands more could recover money spent on medical care.

The Aug. 10 policy addresses an administrative loophole that blocked certain troops from receiving six months of transitional healthcare.

War Department officials confirmed the change but declined further comment because the lawsuit remains active.

Navy Reserve Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Gontarz served in the Navy for 10 years before entering the Reserve.

Federal court records show he then served on full time orders for 1,400 consecutive days, nearly four years, before those orders ended in 2025.

Gontarz expected 180 days of medical and dental coverage through the Transitional Assistance Management Program, commonly called TAMP.

The program provides healthcare for eligible Reservists, Guardsmen, and their families after qualifying periods of active duty.

Instead, the military denied his coverage because his orders did not state that they were “in support of a contingency operation.” That bureaucratic phrase determined eligibility inside the War Department benefits coding system, regardless of how long a service member had actually served.

Gontarz filed suit in April with the National Veterans Legal Services Program.

The federal complaint argued that the Department of War denied coverage to “otherwise eligible servicemembers based on an internal administrative coding requirement,” leaving troops and families to absorb costs they reasonably believed would be covered.

The new policy extends eligibility to troops like Gontarz who volunteered or were “called or ordered to, or retained on, active duty for at least 30 days,” under federal contingency authorities.

Service members no longer must “demonstrate” that their duty was “substantively connected in some way to a war, a contingency operation, or a national emergency.”

That is a meaningful correction for citizen warriors who put civilian jobs and family routines aside when the nation calls.

Troops should not lose earned benefits because an administrator failed to place the proper magic words on an order.

“The military was denying those benefits through a coding mechanism that has now been changed to give the reservists the benefits they have earned,” attorney Rochelle Bobroff said.

“We are very happy that through our litigation, that has been changed prospectively, and those who were harmed in the past six years from our complaint being filed will be able to submit bills for reimbursement.”

Bobroff said discussions continue over corrections to other service records and how affected troops and families will be notified.

Getting the policy right is only the first step because people who paid premiums and medical bills must know they can seek repayment.

Steve Minyard, a former adviser on manpower and reserve affairs, said the policy could reach a far wider population because it includes troops “activated under a period of emergency.”

That legal emergency has remained in effect since September 11, 2001.

Congress authorized more than 161,000 Reservists and National Guardsmen to serve on active duty orders during fiscal year 2026. Many could now qualify for TAMP if they served at least 30 days under the applicable authorities.

“DoW’s got a new budget item they’ve got to look at because they’re going to be giving TAMP going forward to all of those 120,000 whatever people that are activated 30 days and over regardless because they’re all activated under a period of emergency,” Minyard said.

The memo also grants “retroactive eligibility” to troops denied TAMP since April 24, 2020, because their service was “not deemed to be connected in some way to a war, a contingency operation, or a national emergency.”

Eligible service members may request reimbursement for insurance premiums and personal expenses incurred for themselves or covered family members.

Minyard noted that many more Reservists and Guardsmen are mobilized for vital supporting missions than are sent “forward.”

Those assignments can include pandemic response work, Middle East operations, homeland missions, and major training exercises overseas.

“I think the numbers of folks that were denied overwhelm the numbers of people that were granted,” he said.

That means the reimbursement bill could be substantial, but correcting an unfair denial is part of honoring the commitment made to those who serve.

Troops activated for operations against Iran, formerly called Epic Fury and later classified as “overseas operations,” should also qualify under the broader definitions.

Their eligibility will no longer depend entirely on whether a named operation appeared on their paperwork.

“It’s really everybody that wasn’t included in the named operation,” Minyard said. “Their orders don’t say ‘in support of Epic Fury’ so that number is going to be huge.”

The new policy finally recognizes that service matters more than an internal code buried in military paperwork.

For Reserve and Guard families who carried medical costs after years of duty, the change offers both overdue relief and a chance to recover what they should never have been forced to pay.