Key Lawmakers Want to Get Rid of Tricare Premiums for Dependents Under Age 26
Hospitalman Benjamin Lepage gives a COVID-19 vaccine to a 14-year-old, accompanied by his dad, at Naval Hospital Jacksonville’s off-site COVID-19 vaccine location. (U.S. Navy/Deidre Smith)
9 Jun 2021
Momentum is growing in Congress to allow military dependents to stay on their parents' Tricare health plan until age 26 without paying monthly premiums.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., along with Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and others, has introduced a bill that would eliminate the monthly premiums now required under the Tricare Young Adult health program.
Tester chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Defense -- the panel that holds the purse strings for the Department of Defense. His backing, along with a companion bill in the House that has 45 co-sponsors, enhances the likelihood of the Health Care Fairness for Military Families Act making it into law this year.