Curious, why would Tri-care be better than Medicare. Since I am not familar with either one at this point, I am just curious. When they say Tri-care, does that mean the Veterans Admin and if so, you normally dont hear great things from them. Becuse honestly based on my father went through, Medicare and in expensive Blue Cross supplement insurance meant my father pay nothing especially when he went through ICU
TRICARE For Life (TFL) serves as the second payer after Medicare after age 65, for military retirees. No need to buy Medicare Advantage or supplemental coverage. TFL is a DOD program, not VA. There are no premiums for TFL.
VA benefits are a separate program. All vets, separated or retired, can use the VA as their healthcare, and what they pay depends on their disability situation. Too much to go into here, but I’ll give two examples. Someone I know is a 100% combat disabled veteran, a full-career military retiree. He uses Medicare and TFL, pays nothing except the Medicare premium which comes out of his monthly Social Security. No co-pays. He goes to his VA primary and specialist docs for routine care, gets seen for the same things, has all Rx written through the VA, including OTC, and it’s free, and mailed to his house. His vision care, glasses and hearing aids are all through the VA. He pays nothing for anything through the VA. His Medicare + TFL docs are all in the Johns Hopkins Healthcare system, and most of his docs also teach at JH med school. His civilian Medicare doc is a former AF flight surgeon, and his orthopedic doc is a former Navy doc.
On the other hand, one of our USNA sponsor alum who separated after 8 years, so is not a retiree, pays nothing to the VA for services related to his VA-rated disability. For other care, he pays.
TFL is the part of TRICARE for post-65 military retiree beneficiaries. There is also the active duty and under-65 TRICARE military retiree healthcare. Everyone’s mileage varies. In general, I had superb, caring providers and good experiences with both primary care and specialists, military medical staff and civilians, throughout my Navy career, at both tiny clinics and big hospitals. Same with DH.
Funnily enough, since I am no longer eligible to go to MTFs (Military Treatment Facilities), my civilian providers are almost all former military medical folks. My derm is a former Army doc who used to work on combat burn cases, and the other two docs in her practice are a former Navy flight surgeon and an AF Mohs surgeon. The staff techs include several former Navy corpsmen and Army/AF medics. They get me, I get them. They don’t bat an eye at what they see or hear from me; I don’t have to explain anything. My ob/gyn is former AF. Optometrist is Army Reserve. I admit to snooping through doc bios when looking for new providers, along with where they went to school, residencies, board certifications, etc. If I see a military residency or tours, I know what I am looking at.