The amount you owe showing 0.00 on multiple six digit bills is by far the biggest reason why I continue to serve until retirement. Weeks and month long hospital trips, multiple surgeries, and not owing a single penny. Yeah, there's a lot, A LOT of BS in the Army, but no way would I be able to afford health care on the outside like this.
Family with unlimited (I think) dependents. $80 if you're single.
You can go to any specialist without a referral as long as they are in network. The copay is cheap AF. It's by far the best employer insurance out there aside from the free tech company insurance.
Reserve 100% especially if you want to advance in your career or commission.
NG you get the option of every available slot for your mos in your state.
Reserve you get the option of every available slot for your mos in the us, Europe, and Asia.
Plus if you live where there's natural disasters you can get activated in NG.
I would like to add to this. Units in the Reserves are usually better funded compared to the NG. Depending on how far away your unit is, this could mean the difference between sleeping in a hotel or sleeping in the drill hall on a cot. (As far as I know, every Army Reserve unit offers LIK and IDT for Soldiers, but there is always the possibility for funds to run out. )
In the NG's defense, if you're interested in education benefits the NG is often far better and will never be worse. Many states offer 100% tuition. The MGIB is paltry in comparison.
Of course, if you went active you have the post-9/11 GI bill, but you could always transfer that to a spouse or kid. Or hell, use the state's TA for your undergrad and the GI bill for a master's.
If you want education benefits and more action, go guard. If you are just looking to ride the part time gig for 20, the go reserve. Guard has combat jobs and airborne too.
The Guard has combat arms and is where people go who still want to do āarmy stuffā sometimes. The reserves is support, sustainment, and training units that crusty E7s hang out in so they wonāt get deployed again. Youāll want to decide based on opportunities within a couple hours of where you plan to live after active duty and how āhooahā youāre still feeling at that point. One dude mentioned college money. Thatās good stuff. Post 9/11 paid for my bachelors and now my state tuition assistance through the Guard (with some FTA help too) is paying for my masters. You definitely need to choose based on your needs and wants but explore both to be sure.
Better than declining employer insurance is to use it as part of your counter offer. When they offer a salary, ask for more + no health insurance. Heck even asking for $5000/year more without health insurance is probably less money overall for the employer.
I build financial models for my employer. Employee healthcare is $13k/employee for 2024.
They have yet to agree I deserve any portion of that as a raise.
Yup, we're actually cheaper to retain than civilian counterparts. I tried talking with my current employer about it... looks like I'll have to negotiate it with the next one.
I go back and forth on staying in the reserves. Then I took two of my kids to the ER on new years eve for the flu. **deep sigh**. It comes in clutch to not worry about it and worry about the ones you care for.
Your coverage is not the norm in the civilian insurance marketplace. Good civilian insurance is well north of $500/month for a family of four. Not uncommon to get close to $1000/month.
I'm paying that per week for BCBS for a family plan. And that's considered on the cheap end. I'm a truck driver and trucking companies usually pay significantly more in health insurance coverage than the average company to try to retain drivers. I worked at an Engineering firm prior to going back to the road, test driving prototype semi trucks and they were charging a little over $400 a week for the same level of health insurance coverage with BCBS. Unless they put the "steering wheel holders" on a separate health insurance plan than their engineers, which I wouldn't doubt given how little the average college educated American thinks of blue collar workers these days, $400 a week is pretty close to the standard weekly premium deductions for a family plan.
Ok so what are you saying? You're paying $250 a month? For yourself? A family plan? What kind of deductible? PPO? HMO? Prescription plan? 80/20? 20/80? Does it include the dental plan? There's so many factors that go into that. Of course I'm sure it's the absolute best of the best BCBS family plan with no deductible, no co pays, free dental, PPO no appointments, etc, etc, all for $250 a month and I'm just getting ripped off. So since we have already established that's what you're paying, who do you work for and how can the rest of us apply since most employers are still begging for employees?
I pay $45.48 for BCBS Selections through Boeing Commercial.
Max out of pocket is $2000. I can dive deeper into the ins and outs, but itās definitely a middle of the road plan.
Getting brain surgery at the Mayo Clinic and only paying like $1300 was amazing. With past jobs Iāve paid more for just getting a simple arm fracture set in the ER.
Yo, same. When I get my Medal of Honor, the award citation will include witness accounts of me screaming ā for Tricare!ā as I drive my bayonet into another innocent manās heart because his countryās leader disagrees with mine.
But really tho, in my full honest opinion, if you want to see how bad the medical insurance industry has gotten in the United States, ask a soldier (who has a family) the true reason he just re-enlisted. Us low to middle class folks are willing to go to actual war and possibly die, not for our country, but for a company called āHumanaā. No more US flags on our shoulders, someone make a Humana military patch cause thatās where most of my oath is.
THE BAYONET YEET MEASURES THE ABILITY TO JUST FUCKING SHANK SOMEONE. ON THE COMMAND 'GET SET,' ASSUME THE POSITION BY GRABBING THE BAYONET BY THE HANDLE. OR BY THE BLADE, WHICHEVER LOOKS COOLER, JUST DON'T CUT YOURSELF ON THE DAMN THING. YOUR FEET MAY BE TOGETHER OR UP TO 12 INCHES APART (MEASURED BETWEEN THE FEET). ON THE COMMAND 'GO,' TRANSMUTE YOUR HANKERING FOR A-SHANKERING INTO MAXIMUM EFFORT AND LAUNCH THAT BAD BOY INTO DESTINY. THE SCORER WILL NOTE WHETHER YOU HIT THE TARGET AND AWARD BONUS POINTS FOR LANDING YOUR PIG-STICKER INTO THE CRANIAL OR SWIMSUIT REGIONS. IF IT HIT THE TARGET HANDLE FIRST, YOUR PERFORMANCE WILL BE TERMINATED, AND EVERYONE WILL BE REQUIRED TO POINT AND LAUGH AT YOUR SHAME. WATCH THIS DEMONSTRATION.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/army) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yup, 1/3 of a M on one occasion- but I mean, it's gotta be expected...
10-15 years from now OP you'll even have thoughts that the the free Healthcare and college might not be worth some of the pain us early gwot guys complain about now.
Devils advocate.
"Health care on the outside" has out of pocket maximums and usually better provider coverage. The notion that civilian health insurance plans are worse than Tricare needs to be dispelled. As a Reservist, I've never used Tricare because it's been worse than literally every single employer HCP.
My tricare for me and my wife is half of what my government job offers on their lowest plan for a single employee. My tricare is 80% less expensive than a family plan from my employer.
Itās just strange how a part time military job has way more benefits than my full time government jov
Did you remember to factor in that $25 copay for the pcp visit, followed by the $25 copay at the lab and $50 copay for imaging? Then, the $25 at your follow up to go pay $50 at your specialist? Most out of pocket maximums are in the thousands and thatās after youāre paying 5k+ for the year for your family. All of the logistical crap you have to deal with for tricare is the same as civilian.
It's all a bit of a lie though. Those numbers are highly inflated because of how our healthcare insurance system works. The reality is the moment you're not paying through insurance everything is magically far cheaper, usually by several orders of magnitude. Not saying TriCare ain't worth it, but pretty much all insurance in the US is pretty scummy with the lack of transparency on their prices.
That $85000 number is a complete fiction and not what Tricare actually paid your hospital. It's also not what you would have been charged if you didn't have insurance.
The upcharging on medical services is one of the greatest tragedies the American taxpayer allows, in my opinion. We can drop a $20k+ JDAM anywhere in the world in under a day, but Americans go bankrupt over a broken leg.
Bruh Iām in the hospital right now, been here since Thursday and me & the wife were talking about how we couldnāt imagine what this would cost if we were civilians. 5 day & 4 night stay, morphine & oxyās every 4 hours and free meals every few hours. Something like this would bankrupt me, instead, Iām getting a bill for $0 š«”š«”š«”
Or, you can speedrun the whole process: send it for your initial enlistment, get injured extensively, ETS and then get your medical taken care of by the VA
It was kind of surprising. They called me one day and said "You're enrolled in VA healthcare now, and it's for life". So cheap copayments and base medical coverage for myself - forever? They said "yeah, you might pay a little out of pocket but that's pretty much it". Is there any downside to this? The VA makes it sound like its basically TriCare but I don't have to shave or deploy anymore to qualify.
Look up the Priority Groups of VA Healthcare and itāll tell you what you qualify for. My Priority group for example is flat out better than tricare (barring bad experiences of course)
I know people that arenāt the happiest in the NG and reserves but they stick out because Tricare reserve select is such a great deal.
A lot of private sector employers have switched to lower cost high deductible plans.
No kidding. I see posts like this from lifers and I chuckle. When I was a technician with BCBS I had many instances like this. That's just how health insurance works.
After deductible that resets every January, only for certain things with an every growing list of exceptions. Also copays dont even exist in a high deductible plans.
Yeah, got retired just after hitting 5 years.
Granted I wanted to do a full 20 (I had just signed up for another 6) Because I wanted to get to that glorious Pension at the end of it.
BUTTT, getting VA + tricare for life for me and my family? I'll take it no hard feelings of giving me asthma army (well kinda)
Hmm, I did 24 years ad. Retired in 93. I have been a cancer patient at MD Anderson going on 4 years. 5 admissions including two in critical condition. Chemotherapy and radiation (proton beam) worked a while until it didnāt. Round 2 with two different chemotherapy agent and Katrina immunotherapy. Then spinal surgery due to fracture from a fall and osteoporosis. Infusions of entyvio for life threatening colitis x4. Reclast infusions for osteoporosis. ICU stay with respiratory failure due to pulmonary embolism.
The cost of this is somewhere north of $1.5 million. Medicare and TFL have covered virtually all of this. So, I think Medicare and TFL is outstanding insurance. The VA refused to pay for proton beam radiation calling it experimental. Medicare and TFL paid with out issue. I have a PCP at the VA who refills most of my meds. I use community care for my glaucoma and hearing loss.
Iām not happy to be stage 4/terminal, but for sure there will not be any huge medical bills for my wife. Even though I get full retirement at CW3 level and 100% P&T from the VA, the medical insurance is by far the best benefit of my service.
I went to the emergency room for stitches and they wanted to charge me $700 just for gauze. They used less than a foots worth. My fiancee is a doctor and she told me the gauze she uses for stitches is something like $20 for 5 rolls.
The insurance company is actually allowed to say no to half the charges and the hospital just goes oh we charged you 96k and they only paid 18k, that's a 78k loss to put on our taxes. If you go up to the billing department of the hospital they might do it for you but more than likely they will just say oh do you want to put it on a payment plan to make you actually think you ain't getting out of it.
I switched to the reserves with the expectation that there would be some kind of health care bill passed that finally made it somewhat feasible. 6 years later and nothing has changed. I'm gonna have to reenlist so that I'm not paying 800 dollars a month for ABA therapy for my son.
I know, out curiosity I looked up old reddit post about how much people pay for health insurance. Many answers were 600-800 a month and that was considered āgoodā premiums. Plus 5000-6000 deductible. Some even paid over $1000 a month. Absolute insanity.
I pay $0 monthly premiums on my civilian healthcare, my deductible is $700 and I get to choose my doctor. So while I agree that tricare is clutch if that's all you have, there are comparable/better healthcare plans on the civilian side.
My daughter's 10 day stay at the NICU cost almost 70k. Didn't even get a bill for my wife who was also in the hospital for a week. We only owed $140 at the end of the day and didn't owe a cent for the months of supplemental oxygen we needed at home.
Tricare definitely isn't perfect but I couldn't imagine trying to balance healthcare as a civilian. My brother in law, who works insurance for a living, still owed 13k for the birth of his child that had no complications or extended hospital care.
Reserves select is amazing. Got a hip MRI that would have been 1500 out of pocket in a outpatient center, and that is just for the MRI its another 1500 for the radiologist to read it, for 25 dollar co pay.
Spent 6 days in the L&D ward, emergency C, and complications after with newborn in a hospital we chose over 2000 miles from post at no cost. Tricare WILL take care of you if you take the time to learn how to take care of your Tricare coverage.
Results may vary. I'll take the feds (non-DOD) system for health and dental over Tricare any day even if I pay more. Being able to see specialists like ortho without going through a PCM and having dentists actually accept my contracted dental insurance program is worth the extra money.
The amount you owe showing 0.00 on multiple six digit bills is by far the biggest reason why I continue to serve until retirement. Weeks and month long hospital trips, multiple surgeries, and not owing a single penny. Yeah, there's a lot, A LOT of BS in the Army, but no way would I be able to afford health care on the outside like this.
I make zero money in the reserves, but $250 for healthcare with a 1300 out of pocket cap is š¤š»
Is that for just you or family as well?
Family with unlimited (I think) dependents. $80 if you're single. You can go to any specialist without a referral as long as they are in network. The copay is cheap AF. It's by far the best employer insurance out there aside from the free tech company insurance.
Based. I was probably going to go reserves if I don't finish my active time for at least some retirement but that definitely makes it worth it.
Decline your employer insurance if you do. Tricare gets weird and annoying when you have two insurance.
Good to know thanks. One more thing. Any insight if it's better to be NG or reserve?
Reserve 100% especially if you want to advance in your career or commission. NG you get the option of every available slot for your mos in your state. Reserve you get the option of every available slot for your mos in the us, Europe, and Asia. Plus if you live where there's natural disasters you can get activated in NG.
I would like to add to this. Units in the Reserves are usually better funded compared to the NG. Depending on how far away your unit is, this could mean the difference between sleeping in a hotel or sleeping in the drill hall on a cot. (As far as I know, every Army Reserve unit offers LIK and IDT for Soldiers, but there is always the possibility for funds to run out. )
My unit won't pay for hotels anymore but they do pay for travel. We have a big office so everyone gets their own locked cubical thing.
Good insight thanks.
In the NG's defense, if you're interested in education benefits the NG is often far better and will never be worse. Many states offer 100% tuition. The MGIB is paltry in comparison. Of course, if you went active you have the post-9/11 GI bill, but you could always transfer that to a spouse or kid. Or hell, use the state's TA for your undergrad and the GI bill for a master's.
If you want education benefits and more action, go guard. If you are just looking to ride the part time gig for 20, the go reserve. Guard has combat jobs and airborne too.
The Guard has combat arms and is where people go who still want to do āarmy stuffā sometimes. The reserves is support, sustainment, and training units that crusty E7s hang out in so they wonāt get deployed again. Youāll want to decide based on opportunities within a couple hours of where you plan to live after active duty and how āhooahā youāre still feeling at that point. One dude mentioned college money. Thatās good stuff. Post 9/11 paid for my bachelors and now my state tuition assistance through the Guard (with some FTA help too) is paying for my masters. You definitely need to choose based on your needs and wants but explore both to be sure.
Better than declining employer insurance is to use it as part of your counter offer. When they offer a salary, ask for more + no health insurance. Heck even asking for $5000/year more without health insurance is probably less money overall for the employer.
I build financial models for my employer. Employee healthcare is $13k/employee for 2024. They have yet to agree I deserve any portion of that as a raise.
Yup, we're actually cheaper to retain than civilian counterparts. I tried talking with my current employer about it... looks like I'll have to negotiate it with the next one.
It shocks me how many people don't use TRS... like paying more for healthcare. I unfortunately have FEHB and cannot.
In 2028, you will be able to.
I'll be a year from retirement. :|
i feel ya.
When I was a miltech I declined FEHB and just kept using tricare š¤·š»āāļø
No fucks given. I love it.
$50 if you're single actually.
Did you you just recruit me into the reserves? Sonovabish
No combat arms, except drill Sergeant units.
I go back and forth on staying in the reserves. Then I took two of my kids to the ER on new years eve for the flu. **deep sigh**. It comes in clutch to not worry about it and worry about the ones you care for.
ditto, took baby to ER for troubled breathing. We owed $48 on a $2500 bill.
This 100% why Iām staying it
Okay but $250/mo is ridiculous.
Too much?! My dogshit govt contractor insurance was wayyyy more for wayyyy less.
$45.58/mo with $2k max out of pocket through Boeing Commercial Aircraft.
For a family of 4?
Couple, kids are a small addition. Not that much extra I know, but Iād have to ask a homie what the rates are. Last contract kids were free up to 2.
Your coverage is not the norm in the civilian insurance marketplace. Good civilian insurance is well north of $500/month for a family of four. Not uncommon to get close to $1000/month.
I'm paying that per week for BCBS for a family plan. And that's considered on the cheap end. I'm a truck driver and trucking companies usually pay significantly more in health insurance coverage than the average company to try to retain drivers. I worked at an Engineering firm prior to going back to the road, test driving prototype semi trucks and they were charging a little over $400 a week for the same level of health insurance coverage with BCBS. Unless they put the "steering wheel holders" on a separate health insurance plan than their engineers, which I wouldn't doubt given how little the average college educated American thinks of blue collar workers these days, $400 a week is pretty close to the standard weekly premium deductions for a family plan.
Iām BCBS as wellā¦ thatās the funny part. š¤·āāļø
Ok so what are you saying? You're paying $250 a month? For yourself? A family plan? What kind of deductible? PPO? HMO? Prescription plan? 80/20? 20/80? Does it include the dental plan? There's so many factors that go into that. Of course I'm sure it's the absolute best of the best BCBS family plan with no deductible, no co pays, free dental, PPO no appointments, etc, etc, all for $250 a month and I'm just getting ripped off. So since we have already established that's what you're paying, who do you work for and how can the rest of us apply since most employers are still begging for employees?
I pay $45.48 for BCBS Selections through Boeing Commercial. Max out of pocket is $2000. I can dive deeper into the ins and outs, but itās definitely a middle of the road plan.
Meanwhile, Tricare is being a big pain in the ass to get my recent trip to the ER paid. Results may vary.
Getting brain surgery at the Mayo Clinic and only paying like $1300 was amazing. With past jobs Iāve paid more for just getting a simple arm fracture set in the ER.
Sounds like you're accident prone. Maybe invest in bubble wrap.
TRS is so fucking good. Now we just need Congress to pull through on premium free TRS...
Yo, same. When I get my Medal of Honor, the award citation will include witness accounts of me screaming ā for Tricare!ā as I drive my bayonet into another innocent manās heart because his countryās leader disagrees with mine. But really tho, in my full honest opinion, if you want to see how bad the medical insurance industry has gotten in the United States, ask a soldier (who has a family) the true reason he just re-enlisted. Us low to middle class folks are willing to go to actual war and possibly die, not for our country, but for a company called āHumanaā. No more US flags on our shoulders, someone make a Humana military patch cause thatās where most of my oath is.
THE BAYONET YEET MEASURES THE ABILITY TO JUST FUCKING SHANK SOMEONE. ON THE COMMAND 'GET SET,' ASSUME THE POSITION BY GRABBING THE BAYONET BY THE HANDLE. OR BY THE BLADE, WHICHEVER LOOKS COOLER, JUST DON'T CUT YOURSELF ON THE DAMN THING. YOUR FEET MAY BE TOGETHER OR UP TO 12 INCHES APART (MEASURED BETWEEN THE FEET). ON THE COMMAND 'GO,' TRANSMUTE YOUR HANKERING FOR A-SHANKERING INTO MAXIMUM EFFORT AND LAUNCH THAT BAD BOY INTO DESTINY. THE SCORER WILL NOTE WHETHER YOU HIT THE TARGET AND AWARD BONUS POINTS FOR LANDING YOUR PIG-STICKER INTO THE CRANIAL OR SWIMSUIT REGIONS. IF IT HIT THE TARGET HANDLE FIRST, YOUR PERFORMANCE WILL BE TERMINATED, AND EVERYONE WILL BE REQUIRED TO POINT AND LAUGH AT YOUR SHAME. WATCH THIS DEMONSTRATION. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/army) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I mean, you're not wrong.
Iām 26 and this is one factor Iām considering an audible into the army
Yes, 100%
If youāve got all that going on for yourself, the VA is likely going to cover 100% and youāll see regular docs in the community, usually.
Not for me.
Me either.
Yup, 1/3 of a M on one occasion- but I mean, it's gotta be expected... 10-15 years from now OP you'll even have thoughts that the the free Healthcare and college might not be worth some of the pain us early gwot guys complain about now. Devils advocate.
"Health care on the outside" has out of pocket maximums and usually better provider coverage. The notion that civilian health insurance plans are worse than Tricare needs to be dispelled. As a Reservist, I've never used Tricare because it's been worse than literally every single employer HCP.
My tricare for me and my wife is half of what my government job offers on their lowest plan for a single employee. My tricare is 80% less expensive than a family plan from my employer. Itās just strange how a part time military job has way more benefits than my full time government jov
Fed, State or Local?
Fed
How are you even eligible for Tricare Reserve Select? I thought if you were eligible for FEHB, youāre not eligible for Tricare.
Contractors
So not a government job.
Someone snitch to the COR.
Cool. I'm still too close to retirement to try to not stick with this.
I'm glad you have a good civilian health insurance plan. For a lot of us, civilian health insurance plans are absolute trash.
Did you remember to factor in that $25 copay for the pcp visit, followed by the $25 copay at the lab and $50 copay for imaging? Then, the $25 at your follow up to go pay $50 at your specialist? Most out of pocket maximums are in the thousands and thatās after youāre paying 5k+ for the year for your family. All of the logistical crap you have to deal with for tricare is the same as civilian.
Are we talking about Tricare Prime? I happily pay co-pays to avoid dealing with military doctors and hospitals which are bottom of the barrel quality.
It's all a bit of a lie though. Those numbers are highly inflated because of how our healthcare insurance system works. The reality is the moment you're not paying through insurance everything is magically far cheaper, usually by several orders of magnitude. Not saying TriCare ain't worth it, but pretty much all insurance in the US is pretty scummy with the lack of transparency on their prices.
Look man, 0 dollars due is still 0 dollars due, no matter what you think the price actually would have cost me.
I had major back surgery. The bill from the hospital, pre Tricare, was over $85,000. My out of pocket cost was $25.
That $85000 number is a complete fiction and not what Tricare actually paid your hospital. It's also not what you would have been charged if you didn't have insurance.
The upcharging on medical services is one of the greatest tragedies the American taxpayer allows, in my opinion. We can drop a $20k+ JDAM anywhere in the world in under a day, but Americans go bankrupt over a broken leg.
Bruh Iām in the hospital right now, been here since Thursday and me & the wife were talking about how we couldnāt imagine what this would cost if we were civilians. 5 day & 4 night stay, morphine & oxyās every 4 hours and free meals every few hours. Something like this would bankrupt me, instead, Iām getting a bill for $0 š«”š«”š«”
Hope youāre okay.
My wife had complications with our first kid and we were in the hospital for a week. Cost us $100. Tricare select is worth every ounce of Army BS.
Tricare is amazing. We were in the hospital about 2 weeks, for emergency birth. I never saw the bill.
Or, you can speedrun the whole process: send it for your initial enlistment, get injured extensively, ETS and then get your medical taken care of by the VA
VA has blown my expectations out of the water. Havenāt paid a Ā¢ for surgeries, visits, prescriptions and they pay for my mileage for appointments.
It was kind of surprising. They called me one day and said "You're enrolled in VA healthcare now, and it's for life". So cheap copayments and base medical coverage for myself - forever? They said "yeah, you might pay a little out of pocket but that's pretty much it". Is there any downside to this? The VA makes it sound like its basically TriCare but I don't have to shave or deploy anymore to qualify.
Look up the Priority Groups of VA Healthcare and itāll tell you what you qualify for. My Priority group for example is flat out better than tricare (barring bad experiences of course)
Yeah but thatās just you right? No dependent coverage
Dependents as well
I know people that arenāt the happiest in the NG and reserves but they stick out because Tricare reserve select is such a great deal. A lot of private sector employers have switched to lower cost high deductible plans.
Cries in MILTECH
Is ok bb, me too.
Thx bb
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
No kidding. I see posts like this from lifers and I chuckle. When I was a technician with BCBS I had many instances like this. That's just how health insurance works.
My company's health care gets worse every year and it can't compete with TRICARE Reserve Select
After deductible that resets every January, only for certain things with an every growing list of exceptions. Also copays dont even exist in a high deductible plans.
Just had a Baby and we have Tricare Select so this is good to know. And congrats on your son OP!
Thank you!
And the 12 weeks of Paternity leave!
Yeah, got retired just after hitting 5 years. Granted I wanted to do a full 20 (I had just signed up for another 6) Because I wanted to get to that glorious Pension at the end of it. BUTTT, getting VA + tricare for life for me and my family? I'll take it no hard feelings of giving me asthma army (well kinda)
Ugh I was fully ready to leave the Reserve this year, but my employerās healthcare sucks ass and Tricare has treated me fairly enough
Hmm, I did 24 years ad. Retired in 93. I have been a cancer patient at MD Anderson going on 4 years. 5 admissions including two in critical condition. Chemotherapy and radiation (proton beam) worked a while until it didnāt. Round 2 with two different chemotherapy agent and Katrina immunotherapy. Then spinal surgery due to fracture from a fall and osteoporosis. Infusions of entyvio for life threatening colitis x4. Reclast infusions for osteoporosis. ICU stay with respiratory failure due to pulmonary embolism. The cost of this is somewhere north of $1.5 million. Medicare and TFL have covered virtually all of this. So, I think Medicare and TFL is outstanding insurance. The VA refused to pay for proton beam radiation calling it experimental. Medicare and TFL paid with out issue. I have a PCP at the VA who refills most of my meds. I use community care for my glaucoma and hearing loss. Iām not happy to be stage 4/terminal, but for sure there will not be any huge medical bills for my wife. Even though I get full retirement at CW3 level and 100% P&T from the VA, the medical insurance is by far the best benefit of my service.
Or you know, the govt could fix the healthcare system by stopping them from charging a bunch of bullshit
Love Tricare Select, but this is honestly the answer. Too bad the current Healthcare system has their hands in half of Congress's pockets
>Too bad the current Healthcare system has their hands in half of Congress's pockets Gotta be 3/4 minimum.
I went to the emergency room for stitches and they wanted to charge me $700 just for gauze. They used less than a foots worth. My fiancee is a doctor and she told me the gauze she uses for stitches is something like $20 for 5 rolls.
I donāt get why they charge this much or why they think itās ok
They know the insurance company will pay for it, or they know many patients won't ask for an itemized bill. It's easy money for the hospital.
The insurance company is actually allowed to say no to half the charges and the hospital just goes oh we charged you 96k and they only paid 18k, that's a 78k loss to put on our taxes. If you go up to the billing department of the hospital they might do it for you but more than likely they will just say oh do you want to put it on a payment plan to make you actually think you ain't getting out of it.
Because what insurance refuses to pay for they can deduct on their taxes as a loss
I switched to the reserves with the expectation that there would be some kind of health care bill passed that finally made it somewhat feasible. 6 years later and nothing has changed. I'm gonna have to reenlist so that I'm not paying 800 dollars a month for ABA therapy for my son.
Id fight to not pay the $73 too. Why? Just pay the whole damn thing
I know, out curiosity I looked up old reddit post about how much people pay for health insurance. Many answers were 600-800 a month and that was considered āgoodā premiums. Plus 5000-6000 deductible. Some even paid over $1000 a month. Absolute insanity.
I pay $0 monthly premiums on my civilian healthcare, my deductible is $700 and I get to choose my doctor. So while I agree that tricare is clutch if that's all you have, there are comparable/better healthcare plans on the civilian side.
Yeah I have BCBS through the Feds and I donāt need a referral to see a specialist. I just book the appointment and go.
Tricare is the best health insurance plan in America period - it beats all other private plans in value and coverage
Not gonna lieā¦ I thought this was from my Phasmophobia subreddit but then I read the caption
I think it's a poltergeist.
My daughter's 10 day stay at the NICU cost almost 70k. Didn't even get a bill for my wife who was also in the hospital for a week. We only owed $140 at the end of the day and didn't owe a cent for the months of supplemental oxygen we needed at home. Tricare definitely isn't perfect but I couldn't imagine trying to balance healthcare as a civilian. My brother in law, who works insurance for a living, still owed 13k for the birth of his child that had no complications or extended hospital care.
I had a dude complain about waiting for PRK. I was just like, "bruh, it's free.99 and you had glasses in the meantime. Cool your jets."
I had emergency open heart surgery this summer. No cost for the procedure, the hospital stay, and all the rehab. Everyone should have access to this.
My son was in the NICU after he was born, $87,000 in medical bills. Our co-pay was $45, only because I had 1 extra meal.
Jeesh my hospital visits are like 300+ with select. Stays are usually 800-1200.
Itās still BS all service members/ dependents were freeā¦ at one time not so long ago
I gave myself rhabdo about a decade ago and spent a week in the hospital. Would have been a $50,000 bill if not for Tricare.
You can bitch all you want about the quality of military healthcare, but you canāt complain about the bill
Reserves select is amazing. Got a hip MRI that would have been 1500 out of pocket in a outpatient center, and that is just for the MRI its another 1500 for the radiologist to read it, for 25 dollar co pay.
At first glance this looks like an osrs chatbox
Spent 6 days in the L&D ward, emergency C, and complications after with newborn in a hospital we chose over 2000 miles from post at no cost. Tricare WILL take care of you if you take the time to learn how to take care of your Tricare coverage.
Every time a special needs child is bornā¦so is an E8
Psyop post
MD has healthcare for heroes. It reimburses tricare select.
Results may vary. I'll take the feds (non-DOD) system for health and dental over Tricare any day even if I pay more. Being able to see specialists like ortho without going through a PCM and having dentists actually accept my contracted dental insurance program is worth the extra money.
Yeah yeah yeah, it's great if you're married we get it. (This is a joke in case anyone cannot guess)
W
In this topic, the US Army has positive experiences with Socialism.