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Retiree prime vs standard

Old 08-16-2015, 08:54 AM
  #11  
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I was satisfied with Prime when we lived near a major base.
Now that I am too far from a base to keep Prime I am much happier with Standard.
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Old 08-16-2015, 11:20 AM
  #12  
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I am retired and on Medicare but my wife is still under 65 and is using our FedEx Retiree Health Care with Tricare Standard as a supplement. I put her on the Anthem Blue Cross High Deductible plan($500 deductible) which costs $153 per month. Copays generally run anywhere from $70 for an office visit up to $250 for outpatient surgery. Most services are covered at 80% after the deductible is met. So far this year we have paid about $56 out of pocket for over $10,000 in billed medical expenses. Our pharmacy expenses have been about $33 out of pocket on just over $2300.
Several of her doctors do not accept Tricare so I have to do some paperwork and file some claims but it really has been fairly painless once I learned the system. If you are in an area where the majority of the medical facilities accept Tricare, then Tricare Standard should be all you need if you get the MOAA Supplement. If you are in an area where they do not accept Tricare, then looking in to a high deductible policy with your employer may be the way to go.
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Old 08-16-2015, 12:41 PM
  #13  
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Here is a comparison...
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Old 08-16-2015, 01:26 PM
  #14  
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I am a spouse. The kids and I have been on standard since 2012. Love it. We get the best of both worlds our PCMs are off base but being in SA we can go to any of the sub specialty clinics at SAMMC. We have one kid who sees a civ PCM and a civ specialist and then a mil specialist at BAMC to derail the hell fight for the medicine with Tricare we had when he was with a civ doctor. They carry it at the pharmacy.

I would say it depends on where you live if you are more the 50 miles away from an MTF stay prime you have to deal with referrals but you see all civ with no co pays. If you are within 50 of an MTF then go standard and use the mil specialists if needed. In SA all my friends use this plan!
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Old 08-18-2015, 07:24 AM
  #15  
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I'm a gray-area retiree and less than a year away from receiving my retirement pay and medical. It sounds as if standard is the way to go.

Has anyone here had any trouble getting legal services as a retiree? I ask because my wife and I will need to make changes to our trust and will also need powers-of-attorney in the future. We live near WPAFB.
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Old 08-18-2015, 08:03 AM
  #16  
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Originally Posted by Slim11 View Post
I'm a gray-area retiree and less than a year away from receiving my retirement pay and medical. It sounds as if standard is the way to go.

Has anyone here had any trouble getting legal services as a retiree? I ask because my wife and I will need to make changes to our trust and will also need powers-of-attorney in the future. We live near WPAFB.
In my experience, you are pretty much limited to Wills and Power of Attorney.

The level of "help" varies by how many JAGs are on staff, and how busy they are.

My experience in getting help with a fairly plain-vanilla Will left a lot to be desired. Anything other than a cookie-cutter (ie, adding one or two specific items), and they are bewildered how to proceed.

They told me "You need to see an Attorney."
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Old 08-18-2015, 01:07 PM
  #17  
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I was sitting in TAP and was trying to find any reason anyone would take prime over standard. Worst case with standard you are looking at 3k out of pocket per year for the family. Worst case with prime is 1600ish (enrollment fee plus max out of pocket being a grand). As others said, you can buy standard supplements that will cover copays, deductibles, etc.

My family has pretty much always been on standard. I went on when I retired and have been pretty amazed. Puck up the phone, ensure they take it, and get a rapid appt. What a concept.
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Old 08-19-2015, 07:22 AM
  #18  
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As I said earlier, I am a spouse. I am also an attorney and a USAFR JAG. Reservists are entitled to "mission essential only" legal assistance when not activated for more than 30 days so wills power of attorney SCRA USERRA and Landlord Tenant related to deployment (but only from the Tenant side). Unless you are on drill and your unit JA had legal assistance hours. My unit does not do traditional drill weekends and I am separated form all our squadrons so our guys have to go through the base legal office.

Retirees are entitled to the same legal assistance as active duty. one of the few areas where a retiree gets more benefits than when actively serving. So now add in divorce and other such issues.

With all that said Wills and Powers of Attorney are very state specific and the chance a Capt at your local legal office is even licensed in the state that you are in is slim to none. We can do wills because we have a computer program that helps us for each state but it is designed for airman with no family or lt with no assets and a wife and kid. It is not designed to do true estate planning. In order to do a trust in the AF by AFI you have to be specifically approved by TJAG. Usually these guys have either served in the pentagon legal office (because of course the five sided puzzle place has figured out how to avoid paying for something everyone else has to) or are a reservist assigned to the base office who does estate planning and wills and trusts as a part of their civilian practice.

I have said the sounds like you need a lawyer thing before. But what it really means is you need a specialist. Your base legal office legal assistance is an additional duty. It is literally the first thing we can cut by AFI when the crap hits the fan. it is the equivalent of the local DA doing a veterans clinic in his office a few times a week.

If you are retired military with a airline retirement coming up you need to go see a civilian who is board certified in wills/estates/trusts the chances a basic will at the legal office will protect you and descendants from tax consequences are not good.
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Old 09-01-2015, 07:06 AM
  #19  
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I have so had it with the military medical system.

I got blood work done at my last appointment but because I had been out of town I had the blood drawn immediately before my appointment and the results were not ready. A week later about 20 results pop into my micare lab results section and I have no idea what they mean. Using the procedures put out by the military I requested a phone consult via micare.

Fast forward 23 days and still no phone call, so I call the clinic and explain what I've done. The person on the phone laughs and explains "we have a LOT of people on micare, it usually takes 3-5 business days to respond". Well, it has been over 2 weeks since my results were available and I asked for a consult, what's the problem? "No problem -- we don't do phone consults you need to make an appointment to come see your primary care physician." Oh, you mean the same primary care physician who was over an hour late last time and did absolutely nothing except BS about how he's getting kicked out of the USAF for being overweight? Really? I need to drive a half hour each way to and from base to wait an hour to have a 2 minute conversation??? Unphucking believable. So glad I got out.

I dropped prime today and will never go back.
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Old 09-02-2015, 01:58 AM
  #20  
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I was on AD and had prime for about a year for my wife after I got married. The wait for referrals is all I needed to convince me to switch to standard. I call it a convenience fee.


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