Health Insurance

[Lotz]

I have a question for anyone who may have come upon this scenario before. I am currently in the Air National Guard and my enlistment date is coming up. One of the reasons I'm considering re-enlisting is for health benefits, BUT when I go to the Tricare tool, it tells me that one of the criteria in order to be eligible for Tricare is "Not eligible for the FEHB program as a sponsor". Unless I'm mistaken I'm assuming that the ATC health benefits are classified under the FEHB program. There's not much difference in costs of the plans, but deductibles and out of pocket costs are drastically different.

So yeah, I guess in summary the question is, is anyone here active in the guard or air guard while employed as an ATC and using Tricare as their health care option?

 

[TushingPin]

I have a question for anyone who may have come upon this scenario before. I am currently in the Air National Guard and my enlistment date is coming up. One of the reasons I'm considering re-enlisting is for health benefits, BUT when I go to the Tricare tool, it tells me that one of the criteria in order to be eligible for Tricare is "Not eligible for the FEHB program as a sponsor". Unless I'm mistaken I'm assuming that the ATC health benefits are classified under the FEHB program. There's not much difference in costs of the plans, but deductibles and out of pocket costs are drastically different.

So yeah, I guess in summary the question is, is anyone here active in the guard or air guard while employed as an ATC and using Tricare as their health care option?

You can't use the tricare provided to the guard. The only tricare you can use as a federal employee is retired tricare.

 

[Lotz]

You can't use the tricare provided to the guard. The only tricare you can use as a federal employee is retired tricare.

Okay thanks.

 

[alaskanmike]

There was a bill a few years ago trying to authorize Federal Employees who are Guard/Reserve, to be allowed to use Tricare. I'm not sure if it ever gained much traction but I know it was a bill that was getting some attention as Tricare is a huge selling point to keep people in the Guard/Reserve, especially Federal Employees.

 

[Lotz]

There was a bill a few years ago trying to authorize Federal Employees who are Guard/Reserve, to be allowed to use Tricare. I'm not sure if it ever gained much traction but I know it was a bill that was getting some attention as Tricare is a huge selling point to keep people in the Guard/Reserve, especially Federal Employees.

Yeah, that's a huge thing that was keeping me thinking I would be re-enlisting until about an hour ago when I started doing this research. Retired Tricare as TushingPin mentioned, may still make it worth it, but I will have to dig more into it. The approx $1000/ month pre tax that I'd collect in retirement I haven't decided if it's worth it or not to put up with the military for another 8 years.

 

[KP-ATC]

Yeah, that's a huge thing that was keeping me thinking I would be re-enlisting until about an hour ago when I started doing this research. Retired Tricare as TushingPin mentioned, may still make it worth it, but I will have to dig more into it. The approx $1000/ month pre tax that I'd collect in retirement I haven't decided if it's worth it or not to put up with the military for another 8 years.

8 years is nothing in the overall scheme of life. Stick it out. Are you in an ATCS?

 

[TushingPin]

There was a bill a few years ago trying to authorize Federal Employees who are Guard/Reserve, to be allowed to use Tricare. I'm not sure if it ever gained much traction but I know it was a bill that was getting some attention as Tricare is a huge selling point to keep people in the Guard/Reserve, especially Federal Employees.

It's been passed but from my understanding doesn't go into play until 203x or some far away year.

 

[Lotz]

8 years is nothing in the overall scheme of life. Stick it out. Are you in an ATCS?

Not in the military. Work on F16s. Just waiting for my dates right now for the academy. Finally cleared Tier 2 about a month ago.