Just got this from the MOAA site. I am going on Tricare this February and now it appears things have changed considerably.
Veterans Report - 171K May Soon Lose TRICARE Prime
Veterans Report - 171K May Soon Lose TRICARE Prime
Gee, you think folks might get bent out of shape by yet another "this can wait until after the election" dropped shoe?Many may find it disturbing that Defense officials delayed announcing this TRICARE change until after the election out of concern that it could be used by politicians.
These changes have been in the works for some time. In fact, the new TRICARE support contracts were originally drafted in 2007 (during the Bush administration). These contracts were designed to reduce the cost of providing health care to military retirees by constricting Prime service areas.
Philpott reports that “Congress is not expected to block this long-standing plan to tighten access to Prime if the intent is to hold down costs. Doing so likely would require lawmakers to find equivalent budget savings elsewhere.”
Read more: http://militaryadvantage.military.c...force-171000-off-tricare-prime/#ixzz2C3FcG8pT
MilitaryAdvantage.Military.com
Since I am new to Tricare, it seems that cutting Prime for those "outside" 40 miles is just screwing them. So am I supposed to drive 180 miles to a "base" now?
Check into it, but I think TRICARE and the VA system are separate. Maybe there's a way for the VA to accept payments from TRICARE (just as any other provider can), but I doubt you can get anything like TRICARE Prime through the VA.I live in Madison, Wi. We have a VA hospital here but I don't know if that is where Tricare folks are supposed to go. Guess I need to look into that.
It's DoD's estimate that 171,000 folks will be pushed off Tricare Prime. Tricare serves about 5.5 million DoD retirees, so this change affects about 3 percent of them.I don't think this law will affect many retirees. Maybe there are some who have been driving several hours to a Prime provider, I don't know.
I'm new to this so guess I am confused. I thought that Prime was set up to get those who live far away from a base to get into an HMO.
I will look into the supplemental insurance ideas. I belong to ROA and I think they have this type of insurance.