Military Retiree Health Care Options

[Murphy]

I have Tricare Prime. The yearly rate is going up over the next three years. I read where it will be about $1800/yr in the 2008/09 time frame. I live in the Metropolitan D.C. area so a lot of doctors to choose from that accept Tricare. We pay the $12 co-pay at each visit. I elected to use MetLife through AirTran for dental care.

 

[JimGlasair3]

Don't forget the BEST benefit of Tricare is that you will still have coverage past the age of 60 (or 65) when your airline kicks you out the door!
That's the only reason I'm still drillin'!

 

[k3mbbc]

It seems like from what I'm reading that most people use their airline health care as primary and use either Tricare Prime or Tricare Standard as a secondary coverage.

I think that makes sense as long as the two health care policies compliment each other and Tricare can cover those things that the airline policy cannot.

I was surprised to learn that Tricare does not offer vision or dental care for retirees. Do most airline policies offer these?

 

[k3mbbc]

GCD, thanks for what you are doing. The Army is definitely making a difference on the war on terror....I just didn't realize that stoploss has been in effect the whole time.

 

[GCD]

I truly thank you for saying that.

Seriously though, I plan to stick with Tricare Standard because I don't live near any active militatry facilities.

 

[jsingel]

retiree dental

k3mbbc,
There is a retiree dental program. The SWA benefits are much better so I did not sign up for the military retiree plan and only use SWA dental plan. Also, we have a great vision program. For regular insurance, I only use Prime, no company (I live in SAT with Wilford Hall and BAMCC, plus mucho doctors that take Tricare) and they pay me $25 a month to not take the company. Almost offsets 1/2 the other stuff I pay for. BTW, welcome aboard!

P.S. Tricare has never done the dental stuff. It's always a separate company (Concordia etc), even for active duty dependents.

 

[SkiFishFly]

I use Tricare Standard with a supplement from MOAA.
My wife always used standard while I was on active duty - no waiting for some idiot to give you a referal and you get to choose the doc. This was always worth the slightly higher expense.
This option is much less expensive than what AirTran had to offer.
We did sign up for the Met Life dental. It was about the same as what concordia offered and this way we reset the "lifetime caps". If anyone in your family has already had braces, you may want to switch dental plans when you have the chance. Most have some sort of lifetime max that they will pay for braces or similar type work. Once you exhaust that - further work is oout of your pocket.

 

[densoo]

I use Tricare Prime for health, company plans for dental and vision. Cost rise for premiums has been kicked down the road for a year or two due to the uproar from retirees. (If you want to stay up on these issue, I highly recommend joining MOAA at http://www.moaa.org/)

As far as providers go, a lot depends on your region. I'm in the northeast region and two years ago managment was taken over by Healthnet. It is a fantastic deal now.

Healthnet identified regions that were not near a military treatment facility and basically opened up in-network doctors to most Champus providers. Then they made a policy that I don't have to get preauthorizations/precerts anymore for anything, period, if the doctor is in network. Before you had to go through Primary care doctor for a referral every time. Now it all "self-referral."

Each region of the country is managed differently, and your zip code will determine you get managed within your region.

If you live in the northeast, here is the link to the provider list. If they're on the list, you can go to them. You may or may not need a referral.

https://www.hnfs.net//ProviderDirectory/search.aspx?Portal=bene&Tab=home&TabSeq=1&ps=bp&frmRegion=N

 

[T2Pilot]

I use Tricare Standard with a supplement from my wife's job. You don't have to enroll and you can go to any doc though its best to use a participating doc for filing simplicity. Prime is too restrictive in my opinion especially if you travel a lot. Between standard and the supplement everything gets covered including the deductables and co-payments. There is a dental plan - Tricare Retiree Dental Program. You can enroll at www.trdp.org. It's seems expensive to me though but it varies by where you live. I'll be paying about $100 a month for the family plan. If you sign up within a certain time frame of your retirement date there is no waiting period for any treatments. That's good for me since I've got a child in braces. I don't have any alternative dental coverage yet so I went with it.

 

[T2Pilot]

Wow! You guys actually have transition offices? I thought that was some AFN propoganda. You guys actually get to retire?

Hell, the Army has us stop-lossed since 2001, and if they do let you retire, they just say good luck, get lossed, and don't ask for any help.

Yours truly,

Mr. Third year away, losing $50K each year and wanting to retire.

I know the Army has been giving a raw deal with the stop-losses but all the services are required by law to have a transition assistance program. They are run in partnership with the department of Labor. Your home base should have regular classes. Check out the DoD Transition Assistance web site at: http://www.dodtransportal.dod.mil/dav/lsnmedia/LSN/dodtransportal/

You don't need to use a .mil computer to get to it. It can explain the services available and lists all the transition offices.