Half of the U.S. military bases nationwide are in 'health care deserts'

JUNE 17, 2024 5:00 AM ET
Quil Lawrence

For hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops and their families, when the Pentagon orders them to find health care off base there is none.

An NPR analysis found that 50% of active duty military installations stand within federally designated Healthcare Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA). Those are places where medical services are hard to find — commonly called “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,” she says.

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