Tricare Select Enrollment Fee
#11
Occasional box hauler
Joined APC: Jan 2018
Posts: 1,636
I guarantee there will be a front page story in the various military times newspapers about some retired NCO with a special needs kid, wife with cancer, etc. who slipped through the cracks and is now facing bankruptcy due to medical bills. Not saying some people aren’t willfully obtuse, but it will happen. My beef, is simply that a mediocre healthcare package is being watered down even further. I’m fortunate to work at a place with fantastic health insurance options that I’ve already been using as my primary bill payer. The decision I need to make is whether Tricare Select is worth keeping. On basic principle, I want to make the government cover at least some of my expenses because they said they would. However, practically it may be a waste of my time and money. What really angers me are the folks who also earned it and don’t have the financial means to laugh off the increased costs. Not everyone waltzes straight off active duty and into a job that pays substantially better like many pilots do.
#12
I totally agree. If they want to change the benefits we have earned, they need to do it for those starting from now on. Those starting service now can decide if they want to continue under the "new" benefits. Changing the contract after the fact is criminal in my mind.
Last edited by ExAF; 08-09-2020 at 06:43 AM. Reason: Addition
#13
Gets Weekends Off
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Joined APC: Nov 2013
Position: Fastest Hunk of Junk in the Galaxy
Posts: 1,657
#14
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Feb 2017
Posts: 1,269
copays for Tricare prime (retired) have been rising every couple years, as have the annual fees. They’re way less than a “civilian” pays (which is just absurd), but still.
#17
#18
Occasional box hauler
Joined APC: Jan 2018
Posts: 1,636
For those of us who don’t choose to live anywhere near a base, which is the majority of the country, Tricare Select was our only choice. Until next year, Tricare Select had been “free” with only the $3000 out of pocket cap. Not great, but not terrible by any stretch. The out of pocket cap will increase by $500 and there will now be a the deductible. The overall price could still be called reasonable, but now that it has been established that out of pocket costs will increase you can expect similar size increases in perpetuity. Tricare Select is NOT as good as my civilian job coverage (probably among the best in the private sector) so I may drop it since that will enable me to qualify to use a HSA that will provide a vehicle to hide more money from the tax man. For the average Joe who is retired military, Tricare will remain his best option. It will simply be a crappier best option than anticipated that will eat up an ever growing share of his retirement. The outrage is generated by the ex post facto changing of the “deal”.
#19
Tricare Select is NOT as good as my civilian job coverage (probably among the best in the private sector) so I may drop it since that will enable me to qualify to use a HSA that will provide a vehicle to hide more money from the tax man. For the average Joe who is retired military, Tricare will remain his best option. It will simply be a crappier best option than anticipated that will eat up an ever growing share of his retirement.
That's a reductionist trope. You're missing the point of having Tricare Select in AD retirement (pre-medicare): I don't need to be tied to an employer to have it! You may not put much value to it because you're committed to toiling until your hands give out, but I do put a value to it. Especially the value of not having to ask 'mother may I?' to some employer in my 50s as a pre-condition of providing healthcare access to my family. I don't do that because my statistical civilian options (and healthcare options by proxy) outside the military are that of a retail greeter according to your trope. I do it because employer-independent healthcare in "working" age isn't the bug for me, it's the FEATURE.
At this juncture in my life I don't even euphemize the transactional reasons for pursuing an AD retirement. It's actually ironic to me you consider the employer-dependent paradigm the more enviable construct.
#20
Occasional box hauler
Joined APC: Jan 2018
Posts: 1,636
That's a reductionist trope. You're missing the point of having Tricare Select in AD retirement (pre-medicare): I don't need to be tied to an employer to have it! You may not put much value to it because you're committed to toiling until your hands give out, but I do put a value to it. Especially the value of not having to ask 'mother may I?' to some employer in my 50s as a pre-condition of providing healthcare access to my family. I don't do that because my statistical civilian options (and healthcare options by proxy) outside the military are that of a retail greeter according to your trope. I do it because employer-independent healthcare in "working" age isn't the bug for me, it's the FEATURE.
At this juncture in my life I don't even euphemize the transactional reasons for pursuing an AD retirement. It's actually ironic to me you consider the employer-dependent paradigm the more enviable construct.
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