Tricare For Life Authorization: Fill & Download for Free

That’s kind of a sore spot with a lot of (us) older veterans. Back in the late 50s and early to mid 60s the government recruited military personnel with the promise that: if you served 20 or more years, your benefits would include Free Medical for Life. But…they collectively got Amnesia, and denied ever having said that.In the early 70s US military retirees took the US goverment all the way ti the US Supreme Court, in an effort to recover the benefit that we had been promised. Alas, even when presented with the actual Posters used as recruiting aids material, the SCOTUS found in favor of the US government. The final ruling said in part: “Whoever told you that you had Free Medical Benefits for life, did not have the authority to speak on behalf of the United States government. It is recommended that you find THAT person, and sue him for your benefit.” With that, Veterans were tossed to the sidewalk.Tricare which had been developed for civilian dependents, took us in, and began to cover veterans with substantial limits, co-pays, and deductibles …but it was “Something.”Now at age 65, in order to keep our Tri-care benefit, we are required to purchase Medicare for ourselves and our wives. ( If we refuse Medicare, we lose Tri-care as well and have zero insurance.)What of the Free Medical? The government recruited us by promising it, but changed their mind when it was time to pay the bill. Our Pensions are Taxable too, did you know that? Yup. The Federal government give us a pension for our years of service, and then …takes taxes ..amd Medicare out of it. Also is your disability rating is less than 50% ..They take 50% out of the member’s military pension, then turn around and give him an equal amount from the VA. Actual gain for his disability= Zero. It’s a beautiful system.

Our experience is with Tricare Standard and Tricare Reserve Select. We used Tricare Standard when my husband was activated and Tricare Reserve Select when he was in the National Guard/Reserves on standard drills. For TRS, as a family we paid $230/month for the insurance. TRS acts very much like Tricare Standard, we had 150 per person/300 family deductible and once that was met most of our costs were covered.We were able to see any civilian doctor that took Tricare, which is many of them. As an example, I paid a $35 co-pay for my entire prenatal and birth when my son was born. Because I was high risk, this included multiple ultrasounds (weekly from 30 weeks on.) All of that was covered. TRS was, by far, better than any of the insurance offered by our employers.There were some issues when the government changed the companies that handled Tricare. It’s actually divided into regional zones and those are handled by different contracted insurance companies. I had heard horror stories about UHC handling Tricare in the East but had never had to deal with them because we’ve always been in the West zone. For many years, Tricare West was handled by TriWest, a company that was set up and dedicated to processing Tricare. They were wonderful, had great customer service, and were prompt in both paperwork and processing payments. Then Congress decided to award the contract to UHC - there were lawsuits due to some funny business with the bid process - but eventually TriWest dropped the fight. We could immediately see the difference. Paperwork was a disaster, the website didn’t work well, everything was delayed. It took forever to get an authorization or someone on the phone.My husband recently retired so we are in the “Grey zone” before he reaches 58 and we can get Tricare For Life. So we’ll be on employer insurance until then.It should be noted that I have never been to a medical facility on a base. We have always used civilian doctors even when my husband was active duty.

Not exactly. Until the age of 65, they are authorized treatment at any military healthcare facility without charge. After 65 they need to apply for Medicare. They can still be treated at a military healthcare facility but Medicare will be billed.Tricare For Life serves the same function for retirees as Medicare supplements do for civilians. A retiree must enroll in Tricare. Tricare falls under the Defense Health Agency not the VA.At the time I retired VA was only able to treat retirees for those things for which the retiree was paid VA disability benefits; veterans not retirees were treated for nearly any need. The scope of treatment and rules for the treatment of retirees by the VA have changed and I don’t know what those changes entail.While I was active duty, I could walk into any Public Health Service hospital, show my ID card, and be treated without charge. I don’t know but I wouldn’t be surprised if military retirees could be treated by PHS. Perhaps, with subsequent billing to Medicare.