April 10, 2025 | By Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs/Military Health System
For the Military Health System, readiness is a strategic imperative to ensure warfighter dominance, survivability, and resilience, said the acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Stephen Ferrara. “Readiness cannot be secondary. You cannot do readiness at the last minute. You cannot cram for readiness. When it comes to mission success, readiness is everything,” he said.
During his first two months on the job, Ferrara delivered that message at speaking engagements, visits to military hospitals and clinics, town hall forums, and interviews. “We are the only U.S. health care system that goes to war,” said Ferrara, who deployed four times when he served as an active duty U.S. Navy surgeon.
“When America's sons and daughters go downrange and go into harm's way, we honor the pact we made with them and with their parents—that should they become ill or injured, they will receive prompt and effective medical attention anywhere in the world. That is the trust that we have. That's something that our adversaries don't always have, and it gives us an incredible strategic edge.”
His priorities for the Military Health System are to increase lethality of the warfighter, sustain the skills of the medical force, and ensure accessible, high-quality, and sustainable care. “We have to support the warfighter, sustain our skills, and strengthen our chain,” he said. The chain he is referring to is the continued evolution and modernization of the health care system to improve access, quality, and safety.
“If we support, sustain, and strengthen, that is how we build a system that will fight and win, because fundamentally, this is what our job is: to fight and win,” he said.
“We do this by having a ready medical force, so we can provide strong battlefield care and keep guns in the fight,” he said. “We do this by maintaining the medically ready force—because readiness is a medical imperative like it is a moral imperative.”
Ferrara noted that part of his role is conveying to the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth how the MHS is a tremendous force in his priority of force lethality. He explains the MHS optimizes warfighter performance by sustaining readiness of the military force and those charged with their care and recovery.
The Defense Health Program budget, which this year is approximately $61 billion, is about 7% of the Pentagon’s topline budget. “I show the Secretary how we take that topline budget, and how we use that to make the force more lethal, more fit to fight, and win,” he said.
“It starts with maintaining the ready medical force,” he explained. “We must ensure that every member of the team—from the surgeon who wields a scalpel, to the logistician who procured the scalpel, from the nurse who transfuses the blood, to the team who runs the blood bank—is at the top of their game. A team ready to go downrange to fight and win.”
