Tricare Help: Health coverage for student after marriage - Getting out, military health issues - Navy Times

Tricare Help: Health coverage for student after marriage

Q. I’m 20 years old, go to school full time and am a stay-at-home mom. I am covered under my father’s Tricare Prime coverage and plan on getting married soon. My boyfriend’s work does not offer insurance, though, and I have been having a lot of medical problems lately. I am worried I no longer will be covered after we marry. How does that work?

A. Children of Tricare beneficiaries remain eligible for Tricare only as long as they remain single. Marriage will end your eligibility for Tricare, regardless of whether your fiancé has his own health insurance.

If you stay single for now, you may remain covered by Tricare until your 21st birthday, or your 23rd birthday if you continue to be a full-time college student until then and you remain dependent on your father for more than half of your financial support.

At age 23 — again, if you stay single — you would be eligible for a relatively new program called Tricare Young Adult, which requires payment of monthly premiums. You could remain in that program until your 26th birthday.

Q. I’m retired and enrolled in Tricare Prime. I will turn 65 in March. I’m not eligible for full Social Security, though, until I turn 66. When is the latest I have to sign up for Medicare without incurring the 10 percent penalty? When will Tricare for Life begin — automatically in March, when I turn 65, or when I actually sign up for Medicare Parts A and B? I don’t want to pay for Medicare earlier than I have to.

A. Eligibility for Medicare begins at age 65, even for those who are still working or, like you, are already retired but delaying Social Security. The big difference between those who are still working and those who are fully retired when they hit age 65 is that people who are still working usually may delay Medicare Part B enrollment without penalty, but those who are fully retired (your group) may not. As such, you need to enroll in Medicare Parts A and B in the three months before or after your 65th birthday.

When you become eligible for Medicare at age 65, you transition out of Tricare Prime and into Tricare for Life. One of the bedrock requirements for Tricare for Life eligibility is enrollment in Part B, which requires payment of monthly premiums (currently about $100 a month). Under TFL, Medicare would be first payer and Tricare Standard would be second payer.

Write to Tricare Help, Times News Service, 6883 Commercial Drive, Springfield, VA 22159; or tricarehelp@militarytimes.com. In email, include the word “Tricare” in the subject line and do not attach files. Get Tricare advice anytime at www.militarytimes.com/tricarehelp.