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

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 health 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 health care,” she says.

NPR mapped counties designated as shortage areas for primary care, mental health care and maternity care nationwide. Excluding National Guard installations, half the bases landed within at least one desert. Three out of four bases in primary care deserts are also in either a mental health care desert, a maternal care desert, or both. By population, 1 in 3 U.S. troops and their families live in a health care desert.

Three out of four bases in primary care deserts are also in a mental health care desert, a maternal care desert, or both.

For more than a decade, the Department of Defense has been trying to realign medical services, bringing the four branches of the military under one health agency with the aim of cutting costs and downsizing military treatment facilities. A big part was pushing family members away from treatment on base and out into the civilian community where they could use their Tricare health insurance. Troops, families and military retirees have used