[Vision2020] Young Adult Tricare Coverage: $200 a month

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the Army Times.

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Young Adult Tricare coverage to cost about $200 a month

It will cost about $200 per month for young adults under age 26 to keep
health insurance coverage under their parents’ Tricare policy. Military
health officials announ­ced the new program’s rates April 27 and said it
is open for enrollment with coverage starting May 1.

The new program will allow chil­dren of troops and military retirees to
extend coverage beyond the traditional cutoff at age 21, or 23 for
full-time students.

The monthly rate for Tricare Standard/Extra coverage is $186, officials
said. Tricare Prime coverage, to be offered later this year, will cost
$213 per month.

Congress passed a law in Janu­ary ordering Tricare to offer the coverage
because many young people struggle to find health insurance through an
employer.

Yet concerns about rising military health care costs prompted Congress to
mandate that the military health system pass along the entire cost of the
coverage to beneficiaries, so the rates are similar to those available in
the private sector.

Only military dependents who are unmarried and do not have access to
coverage through an employer can qualify for the new program, officials
said.

Tricare officials estimate that about 6 percent of those eligible — or
about 14,000 young adults — will sign up for the program in 2011.

Eligible beneficiaries can pur­chase retroactive coverage back to Jan. 1
if they have saved health care receipts for qualifying services. More
information is available online at:

http://www.tricare.mil/tya

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Tricare, another one of them gubmint run health care programs.

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom "Long-time Member of Tricare" Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to
changeand the Realist adjusts his sails."

 - Unknown