The new Tricare Reserve Select
November 15th, 2007 (1:39 pm) by Troy-On October 1st, 2007 Tri-care released an entire new health care program for all members of the Reserve component. The John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 (P.L. 109-364) enhanced the Tri-care plan, which is now the Tricare Reserve Select Plan provides low-cost and comprehensive health care coverage for all active drilling National Guard and Reserve members. This new plan that went into effect on October 1st, provides the lowest premiums ever and for the first time full and wide open qualification by just being a serving member. Previously the plan was in a tiered fashion that charged different rates based on the servicemember’s status. The highest level of the tier was as costly as an individual buying their own healthcare without a group discount.
The new Tricare Reserve Select (TRS) provides full Tricare standard coverage to individuals for a mere $81 a month and full family coverage for only $253 a month. That is much cheaper that many company provided health care plans in the market today. I know that is over $50 cheaper than the plan my company offers. In addition to the cheap monthly rates, it also has very low deductibles, with family deductibles for E6 and higher only being $150 per person or $300 max for the family. Looking at the plans my company provides that is much cheaper than the $250 per person, $1250 per family they offer. These rates are pretty common with company provided health insurance plans across the board.
Since my family is coming off of 19 months of Tricare coverage based on my Title 10 deployment, we are already used to the doctors, coverage and process in using Tricare. Their coverage and reimbursements have been very good and much better than the CHAMPUS days of past. If someone was enrolled in the old plan, they must still sign up for the new one as the coverage does not roll over. The only requirement to receive this new plan is simply to be a actively drilling member of the reserve component (includes National Guard) .
I have written about the benefits of being a military member before on everything from restaurant discounts to special services, and this one is definitely another benefit that should not be passed up if a person is a serving member of the Reserves or National Guard. For more information or to enroll contact your state representative listed on http://www.tricare.mil/mybenefit, select the “benefits update” link for the Tricare Reserve Select information page.