Reserve Retirees Under 60 Could See Tricare Benefits By Fall

(NAVY TIMES 04 JAN 10) ... Rick Maze

Tricare health benefits for "gray area" retirees could be available by the fall, much earlier than previously forecast by defense health officials.

A provision of the 2010 Defense Authorization Act, which became law in October, extends health care to reservists who served long enough to qualify for military retirement pay but not yet receiving it because they are under age 60.

National guard and reserve groups hailed the new law that makes Tricare Standard and Tricare Extra health benefits available to gray-area retirees as a big step toward providing more equitable retirement benefits - until they learned it could take up to 18 months for Tricare to begin accepting new enrollments.

But Rear Adm. Christine Hunter, Tricare's deputy director, now says she expects enrollment to begin "by late summer or early fall of 2010," at least six months earlier than what Tricare was predicting in November.

David Small of the Reserve Officers Association called that an "improvement," but added: "We still keep pressure on DoD to speed up the process."

The change is aimed at Guard and reserve members who are eligible for health coverage under the Tricare Reserve Select program as long as they remain in a drilling status, but lose coverage when they leave service until they turn 60 and begin receiving military retired pay.

Tricare officials said Tricare Standard and Extra benefits for gray-area retirees will be "similar" to what is offered under Tricare Reserve Select, but will have different premiums, co-payments, qualifications and catastrophic gaps.

Premiums for what will be called the Tricare Retired Reserve program will be higher than for Tricare Reserve Select, officials warned, because they law that created the new benefit says premiums must cover its full cost. Tricare Reserve Select premiums cover only 28 percent of that program's cost, officials said.