Tricare Help: Coverage after a divorce - Getting out, military health issues - Navy Times

Tricare Help: Coverage after a divorce

Q. My wife and I have been married for 19 years while she has been on active duty. Although I’ve worked as an engineer for various companies during that time, we have always depended on her military health insurance because of its much lower cost. Do I qualify for health insurance from her military career after our divorce?

A. The division of marital property is resolved under provisions of the laws of the state where the divorce takes place. I trust you have a lawyer to represent your interests.

Tricare eligibility is established by federal law for designated categories of people. Tricare has no authority to make individual eligibility determinations — and, according to what I have learned in my years of working with the program, state laws have no authority in the matter of Tricare eligibility.

I suggest you tell your lawyer to contact the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System, known as DEERS, on your behalf to discuss what medical benefits you can salvage from your marriage. The toll-free number is 800-538-9552.

Q. My wife will be 65 in December and get Medicare. I am a reservist who will be 60 in July. When can my wife get Tricare for Life — in December when she is 65, in July when I am 60 and retire, or does she have to wait until I get Medicare when I am 65?

A. For your wife to be eligible for Tricare for Life, she must first be eligible for Tricare. You and your family will become eligible for Tricare on your 60th birthday, when you become entitled to receive military retired pay. As your wife will already have Medicare at the time her Tricare eligibility starts, she’ll be eligible for Tricare for Life immediately, if she is enrolled in Medicare Part B and properly registered in DEERS.

Call your reserve personnel section a few weeks before you turn 60 to ask what documents you will need to apply for retirement and to enroll yourself and your family in Tricare. Ask whether your family needs to go with you to have pictures taken for their ID cards.

Be sure to tell the personnel officials that your wife is already entitled to Medicare and enrolled in Part B. She’ll probably have to present a copy of the award letter she got from Medicare to prove that she is enrolled in Part B.

If there are any problems with your wife’s Tricare for Life eligibility, call the DEERS support office, toll-free, at 800-538-9552. Explain the problem and ask what needs to be done to fix it. DEERS is the official source for all information and help regarding Tricare eligibility.

Write to Tricare Help, Times News Service, 6883 Commercial Drive, Springfield, VA 22159; or tricarehelp@militarytimes.com. In e-mail, include the word “Tricare” in the subject line and do not attach files. Get more Tricare advice at our Tricare Help blog.