Q. Does Tricare cover grandchildren if the grandchild is born to a military sponsor's minor child who is still living at home? In other words, a service member's minor daughter is pregnant — will Tricare cover her and the baby's health care needs?
A. Tricare will cover the daughter's pregnancy-related health care needs and the birth of the baby, and will continue to cover any of the daughter's other health care needs until age 21, or age 23 if she's a full-time college student.
Unfortunately, grandchildren are not eligible for Tricare. The only way for a military sponsor to obtain Tricare coverage for a grandchild is for the sponsor to legally adopt the grandchild.
In this scenario, the fact that the baby's mother is a minor child herself is irrelevant.
Q. My husband will transition to Tricare for Life this year, but I will not turn 65 for another two years. Do we continue to pay the family rate for Tricare Prime coverage for me, or does it convert to single coverage only for me?
A. Once your husband makes the shift to TFL, you would pay the individual Prime enrollment rate, not the family rate, until you also make the shift to TFL.
Q. I am the spouse of a retired National Guardsman. I'm considering retiring from my job, where I have coverage through United Healthcare. Will Tricare Standard/Extra be enough coverage for me? I can be added to my spouse's group coverage, but it's pretty expensive. Also, I thought Prime was better coverage than Standard/Extra since there is a yearly cost, but I understand that if I want to continue using my current doctors, I should stay with Standard/ Extra.
A. We receive variations of this question all the time at Tricare Help, but unfortunately we can't give a definitive answer, for the simple reason that every individual's health needs, financial resources and life situations are different.
In general, Tricare Standard offers robust coverage, and as you note, it does offer more provider choice than Prime. The offset is that beneficiaries may see higher out-of-pocket costs than Prime in the form of co-pays and cost shares.
But again, only you can determine how much coverage is enough for you.
Tricare has a website that beneficiaries can use to directly compare features and costs of Tricare options. You can stack up Prime and Standard directly against each other and see which one fits you best. You can find that page here.
If, in the end, you come down on the side of Tricare Standard but still have some qualms about whether that's enough coverage, you may want to look into one of the many Tricare supplemental policies that are offered by any number of military and veterans associations.
If you Google the words "Tricare supplemental insurance," you'll get a bunch of hits to get you started.
Email questions to tricarehelp@militarytimes.com. Include "Tricare" in the subject line and do not attach files.
