"This e-mail features a prominent reference to something we’ve dealt with before: A July 2, 2008, speech in Colorado Springs by then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. Obama talked there about building up "a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded" as our military force. But the doomsayers left out the context: Obama was proposing strengthening the Peace Corps, Americorps, the USA Freedom Corps and the ranks of the State Department’s foreign service officers.
Despite our efforts, though, some people have been on the lookout for signs of Obama’s "national security force" ever since, and they think they have found it in section 5210 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health care overhaul recently signed into law by the president. The blogosphere has been ablaze with postings, which, like the e-mail above, often contain references to Hitler, brownshirts, Nazism and the like.
The truth about the new Ready Reserve Corps is a lot less interesting than the conspiracy theories. Before the law was passed, the Public Health Service, unlike other elements of the government’s seven uniformed services, didn’t have a "ready reserve" – a cadre of individuals who could be called up involuntarily in times of need. What it had was a regular, full-time corps of 2,800 doctors, nurses, scientists and other medical professionals, which was the limit under law. It also had a reserve corps. But most of the individuals in the reserve corps, which was larger than the regular corps, were on extended active duty for the duration of their careers; in other words, they worked full-time, just like the regular corps, because they were needed, but the statutory cap prevented the service from bringing them into the regular corps.
The new law eliminates the personnel cap and brings the members of what used to be the reserve corps into the regular corps, which as a result now numbers about 6,600, according to an official at the Public Health Service who spoke to us on background.
And the law creates the ready reserve of individuals who can be called up for service by the U.S. surgeon general in times of need; the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is often used as an example of an incident that might trigger a call-up.
Officials at the PHS are in the process of developing regulations that will determine how the Ready Reserve Corps is populated, but the person we spoke to said there will be limits on how long individuals could serve on active duty. Those who are activated will be paid for the duration of their service, and the bill provides $12.5 million per year through 2014 for the Ready Reserve.
It’s unclear at this point how large the Ready Reserve will be, but a number in the neighborhood of several thousand has been mentioned. The PHS had been hoping to create the new team for several years, for reasons that may have been best described in a 2008 report, Blueprint for a Healthier America, published by a nonprofit group called the Trust for America’s Health to help guide the next administration and Congress:
Blueprint for a Healthier America: There are not sufficient numbers of public health professionals to respond during major health emergencies, and when Corps members are called away to respond to emergencies, it means their ongoing functions are often neglected. If a “Ready Reserve” program was created, retired members of the Corps could become reservists who could be deployed on short notice during emergencies, or could fill in at federal agencies when active members are needed during emergencies, to ensure ongoing functions are carried out. Reservists would be required to participate in an appropriate number of drills and training throughout the year. Members of the reserve could also help fill in to provide services for underserved communities where health problems are the greatest.
Jerry Farrell, executive director of the Commissioned Officers Association, told us that the Ready Reserve can help the PHS avoid situations such as what happened after Katrina, when so many members of the regular and reserve corps were dispatched to New Orleans and other areas hit by the 2005 hurricane that "the corps discovered, for instance, that they had deployed a whole surgical clinic of the Indian Health Service."
Needless to say (we hope), there is absolutely no support for this chain e-mail’s speculation that uniformed members of the Public Health Service would be ordered to give "lethal injections (a.k.a. vaccinations) to ‘unworthy people.’ "
–Viveca Novak
Sources
Hamburg, Richard. Deputy Director, Trust for America’s Health. Interview with FactCheck.org. 6 April 2010.
Trust for America’s Health. "Blueprint for a Healthier America." October 2008.
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Pub. L. No. 111-148. Enacted 23 March 2010.
Farrell, Jerry. Executive Director, Commissioned Officers Association. Interview with FactCheck.org. 6 April 2010.
Posted by Viveca Novak on Wednesday, April 7, 2010 at 4:13 pm
Filed under Ask FactCheck · Tagged with Army, Barack Obama, chain e-mail, health care, health care reform, ready reserve"
Re: Obama’s “Private Army"
Member #: 10075
Registered: 1996-2001
Posted:
416
Name:
Dale
Occupation:
Project Manager/Sweep Technician
There is 1 reply to this message
