Long-Distance Family Tricare

[ASUPilot]

My wife has a job opportunity that is too good to pass up back in the city we moved to our current base from. I posed the Tricare question to my local office and they were, let's just say, less than convincing they knew much about the benefits. My wife and I have no children.

Does anyone have experience with Tricare when your spouse lives 2000 miles away from you? Are there any "gotcha's" with her coverage since she wouldn't reside with me? I plan to relocate back to said city when my ADSC expires in 18 months (hoping for the Reserves).

Edited June 25, 2012 by ASUPilot

[Swanee]

I live in Kingsville, Tx. Wifey lives in Phoenix. Go to DEERS, change her address- make sure TRICARE gets address change. Presto whammo- she gets a new PCM in the area that she lives in. (My wife is TRICARE Prime FWIW). You also can also get the higher BAH rate of the two if you play it correctly.

[Striper_WSO]

I live in Kingsville, Tx. Wifey lives in Phoenix. Go to DEERS, change her address- make sure TRICARE gets address change. Presto whammo- she gets a new PCM in the area that she lives in. (My wife is TRICARE Prime FWIW). You also can also get the higher BAH rate of the two if you play it correctly.

Checks. My wife lived in Chicago for a year while she was finishing med school. I was in Abilene. Same experience, Tricare covered her while she was there.

[Jughead]

You also can also get the higher BAH rate of the two if you play it correctly.

Hmmm...?

[Learjetter]

You also can also get the higher BAH rate of the two if you play it correctly.

Be very very careful with this...

[Swanee]

Be very very careful with this...

Interesting... it was our S-1 (CWO-4 type, old, crusty, been around since Chesty) that told me this. Maybe I'm just a dumb yut-yut but he made it pretty clear that if you're wife/family lives away from you for a valid reason (IE- access to necessary medical care) you rate the higher BAH of the two. As it turns out I get $30 a month more here in Krock than I would if we claimed PHX. YMMV

Edited June 26, 2012 by Swanee

[Gravedigger]

My wife lived in Atlanta when I was in in California. No issues at all. Just call the 800 number for your region and they'll help you out, they do this sort of thing all the time.

[nunya]

if your wife/family lives away from you for a valid reason (IE- access to necessary medical care) you rate the higher BAH of the two.

If it's true at all, therein lies the catch. The cases where a wife had to live separate must be the tiny minority. Most guys (like ASUPilot) are doing it completely by choice (better job, schools, not Cannon, whatever).

Edited June 26, 2012 by nunya

[Swanee]

If it's true at all, therein lies the catch. The cases where a wife had to live separate must be the tiny minority. Most guys (like ASUPilot) are doing it completely by choice (better job, schools, not Cannon, whatever).

Not as tiny as you would think. At least not in the Marine Corps. Then again- we don't have a huge myriad of bases around the country in major metropolitan areas. While we have the Exceptional Family Member Program- if my wife needs regular medical care in somewhere that isn't podunk (Except for Mirramar all we have is podunk) then she has to live elsewhere. This is especially true with mental health.

[Guest]

My wife has a job opportunity that is too good to pass up...

Does her employer in this great job provide healthcare?

[ASUPilot]

Does her employer in this great job provide healthcare?

For now, it does not. The compensation reflects that.