Medicare?

Chief's Wife,

If I understand Tricare Prime correctly, you can no longer keep it when you turn 65. You must convert to Medicare/TFL. I am also on Prime but my wife has private insurance through her job. I've been looking at our options when she retires (early 2010). She likes her current doctor and thinks she wants to do standard Tricare. I like Prime, but I think I'll be forced out at 65.

Maybe someone with more knowledge can verify the "65 and out of Prime" statement.

You got it right. We are on Tricare Standard because we don't want to get locked into doctors just here in Oklahoma. We do like to travel. When the wife hits 65 next June she will be forced from Standard to TCL. Actually, this is a good thing. Right now, with Standard, we find Tri-care does not pay for many things plus we have trouble finding doctors in our area that will accept Tri-care only. With Medicare/TCL pretty much everything is covered. (I won't have to worry about the change over for another three years. As you can tell, I married an older woman. : )

Monkey44,
I don't know what the VA policy is in case you are out of reach of a VA hospita and end up in a civilian hospital which could happen if you travel. You might consider it like any other isurance , you pay it for years and never use it. Use it one time and pays for everything you have put into it and more. As far as co pays TCL pays all the co pay. I mention it earlier I have had idtsince it started and only had to pay $162 for a test that medicare wouldn't cover.