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Tricare ends when you begin again

January 4, 2010 • June Walbert

Q: My hus­band retired from the USMC in 1976 and passed away in 2002. I am now 65, as of this year, and have Tri­care for Life. If I re-marry will I lose my benefits?

–Carol, Quail Nest, Colo.

A: In a word, yes. You’re smart to be think­ing about this. Tri­care is one of those won­der­ful mil­i­tary ben­e­fits and in this day of expen­sive civil­ian health poli­cies, it would be a shame to lose it. So here goes: when it comes to Tri­care eli­gi­bil­ity get­ting remar­ried is not a good thing…whether you’re a sur­viv­ing spouse or for­mer spouse, remar­riage does trig­ger ter­mi­na­tion of Tri­care eli­gi­bil­ity. Here’s a link to the infor­ma­tion at the Tri­care web­site. If you’ve found another love that is not eli­gi­ble for Tri­care, be sure you two plan for your health­care needs as a new cou­ple. That may include uti­liz­ing Medicare with a sup­ple­men­tal pol­icy to fill the gaps Medicare doesn’t cover. There are a vari­ety of choices avail­able, so do your home­work. Good luck!

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One response to “Tricare ends when you begin again”

  1. MARY
    January 7, 2010 at 3:34 pm |

    If a wife was mar­ried for 17 yrs to a man who served 4 yrs as a marine then got out and joined the national guard for some yrs. And then divorced and mar­ried a sec­ond wife for ome yrs., would the 1st wife of 17 yrs. be eli­gi­ble for national guard retire­ment ben­e­fit or health ????

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