Your retirement plans . . .

[Spekkio]

Yeah, the “or so” covered me for the college part, so mostly true.

Fair enough. It's mostly interesting that Tricare basically charges the healthcare.gov individual rates. Perhaps there's some better cost sharing perks but your Mk1 Mod0 20-something year old will spend $500 or less per year on medical expenses as a cash only customer (which barely exceeds the Tricare YA select deductible) yet would pay a $4000 a year premium on the off chance that they become hospitalized with a 6 figure bill doing something other than driving (because auto insurance covers this).

This makes me hate Obamacare even more, it basically creates a ponzi scheme for young people to subsidize unhealthy middle aged men and women, and the "you can stay on your parents plan until 26" is like when the cable bill goes up after the first discount year and they are banking on no one bothering to pay attention or cancel.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

This is not true.

Your dependents can be under your TRICARE plan until age 21 (23 if enrolled full-time in college). After this time, but before age 26, they can obtain Tricare Young Adult.

The premiums for TYA-select are $337 per month and skyrocket to $727 per month for prime. The fees / co-pays are the same as the parents' status - AD / reserve / retired.

That's an insanely expensive health insurance premium for most people that age, and it's interesting that the ACA rules allowing children to remain on their parents' insurance plans up to their age 26 birthday don't apply to Tricare in the strict sense.

Unless you want to pay the premiums for them.... your children should be planning on getting a full-time job and going on an employer sponsored health insurance plan that would slash that monthly cost by 50-67% or YOLOing it like our generation did.

I learned about this with my oldest when she hit 23 as I thought as long as she was in college she was good to go, but nope! I found out how much TYA was and just about died. It was cheaper to get her and myself on my companies health insurance, I could have added all the kids and it would have been the same since it said yourself + children and everyone could have been dual covered. I have my middle daughter on my companies plan since she is over the age limit and done with college, she pays half the cost of the insurance right now, then when she gets a full time job I will drop the civilian insurance.

 

[MIDNJAC]

We opted for select for many years when I was on active duty. And then in the reserves I use TRS, which is I guess select as well. But fun fact is that when you go on >30 day orders, you get auto enrolled in free tricare, and that tricare is prime. When I went off my most recent set of orders, they had autonomously enrolled my kid with some provider at the clinic and we kept getting messages about it. This was about 3 days before I reverted back to select and I don't even know what it was about, he has no condition or anything requiring medical referrals. Tricare is primarily dumber than a bag of rocks, though it is cheap. My wife was a provider for many years, and it is embarrassing what our country has contracted with them. They audited her 4 years ago, she hasn't been a provider for the last 2 of those years, and they still haven't closed out their audit. But they have also been systemically trying to remove (stop paying for) services to autistic kids for years now. Which is her area of expertise. It's a love/hate relationship I have with them. But you won't get a better deal pretty much anywhere, unless you go full Leeroy and join a health care coop or HSA as a young healthy person

 

[Gatordev]

But they have also been systemically trying to remove (stop paying for) services to autistic kids for years now.

Not just autistic kids, but claims in general. I've had several PT claims that were paid out, only to have additional billing come to me a year later. Fortunately the provider is pretty helpful and would tell me not to pay it, but it would take months to finally stop receiving the bills.

 

[MIDNJAC]

Not just autistic kids, but claims in general. I've had several PT claims that were paid out, only to have additional billing come to me a year later. Fortunately the provider is pretty helpful and would tell me not to pay it, but it would take months to finally stop receiving the bills.

Yeah I can only imagine the patient end of that nonsense is endlessly maddening and stressful.