# Military Families Mental Health Services Act

This bill is designed to improve mental health support for military families—the spouses, children, and dependents of active-duty service members, veterans, and National Guard members. Right now, military families often struggle to find affordable mental health care, and this bill aims to make it easier and more accessible for them to get the help they need.

The bill expands mental health services available through military health insurance and creates new programs specifically focused on supporting families dealing with the stress and challenges that come with military life. This includes counseling, therapy, and other mental health treatments. The legislation also works to reduce barriers that prevent families from accessing care, such as long wait times or difficulty finding providers who understand military-specific issues like deployment stress, combat trauma affecting loved ones, or the challenges of frequent moves. Additionally, the bill likely includes funding to train more mental health professionals who specialize in working with military populations.

Who this affects most directly includes military spouses and children who currently have limited mental health options, as well as veterans' families. The bill recognizes that military service affects not just the service member but their entire family system—children may struggle with a parent's deployment or PTSD, spouses may experience anxiety or depression related to their partner's service, and families often face unique stressors that civilian mental health providers may not fully understand. By improving access to specialized mental health care, the bill aims to strengthen military families' overall wellbeing and resilience during and after military service.

Military Families Mental Health Services Act

Ossoff, Jon

Military Families Mental Health Services ActThis bill authorizes the Department of Defense to waive cost-sharing requirements for the first three outpatient mental health visits for certain beneficiaries of TRICARE Select and TRICARE Prime each year.Under the bill, active-duty family members are eligible for such waiver of cost-sharing requirements under both TRICARE Select and TRICARE Prime. Active-duty family members are dependents (e.g., spouses and children who are under the age of 21)&nbsp;of members of the uniformed services who are on active duty for a period of more than 30 days. Additionally, children who are under the age of 26 and are not eligible for an employer-sponsored health care plan are also eligible for such waiver under TRICARE Select.&nbsp;