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.