TRICARE plans explained
Last reviewed
Most of the confusion about who accepts TRICARE traces back to not being sure which TRICARE you have. The plans differ in who you can see, whether you need a referral, and what you pay — and the same doctor can be a fine choice on one plan and an expensive mistake on another.
Prime or Select — start here
For most families it comes down to these two. Prime is managed care: you get an assigned primary care manager (PCM), you go through them for specialty care, and you pay very little. Select is self-managed: you pick your own providers with no referral, and you pay more for that freedom.
The practical test is geography. If you live near a military hospital or clinic, Prime usually wins on cost and access. If you don't, or if you have specialists you want to keep, Select's flexibility is often worth the higher cost share.
Every plan, and who qualifies
| Plan | Who qualifies | How it works |
|---|---|---|
| TRICARE Prime | Active duty service members and their families, retirees and their families, activated Guard and Reserve members and their families, survivors, and qualified former spouses. | Managed care. You get an assigned primary care manager and generally need referrals for care they don’t provide. |
| TRICARE Select | Active duty family members, retirees and their families, and others — but not active duty service members. | Self-managed. See any TRICARE-authorized provider without a referral, at a higher cost share. |
| TRICARE Prime Remote | Active duty service members in designated remote locations, and activated Guard/Reserve on orders longer than 30 days. Family members living with the sponsor are also eligible. | Prime-style coverage where there’s no military facility within reach. |
| TRICARE For Life | Anyone TRICARE-eligible who has Medicare Part A and Part B — at any age, anywhere. | Wraps around Medicare rather than replacing it. Medicare pays first. |
| TRICARE Reserve Select | Selected Reserve members not on active duty orders longer than 30 days, not covered by TAMP, and not eligible for Federal Employees Health Benefits. | Premium-based plan you purchase, working like Select. |
| TRICARE Retired Reserve | Retired Reserve members under 60 qualified for non-regular retirement and not eligible for FEHB. | Premium-based, bridging the gap until age 60. |
| TRICARE Young Adult | Unmarried adult children of an eligible sponsor, at least 21 but not yet 26. | Purchased separately, in a Prime or a Select option. |
| US Family Health Plan | Beneficiaries who live in a US Family Health Plan service area — but not active duty service members. | A TRICARE Prime option delivered through a designated civilian provider network. |
Eligibility summarised from the individual plan pages on tricare.mil, verified August 1, 2026. Overseas versions — Prime Overseas, Prime Remote Overseas and Select Overseas — exist for each of the first three; see overseas facilities.
Group A and Group B: the split nobody explains to you
Before any cost table makes sense you need to know your group, and it has nothing to do with your rank or your plan. It's about when your sponsor's service started.
- Group A — the sponsor's initial enlistment or appointment was before January 1, 2018.
- Group B — on or after January 1, 2018.
Group B generally pays more. A retiree family on Prime pays $765 a year in Group A and $927 in Group B for the same coverage. Nothing you do changes your group — it's set by the sponsor's start date — but you can't read a cost table without it.
What the plans cost in 2026
Active duty service members have no enrollment fees, no deductibles, and pay nothing out of pocket for covered services when following their plan's rules.
Active duty families pay no enrollment fee on either Prime or Select, in either group. Select carries a deductible based on the sponsor's pay grade. The catastrophic cap — the most you can be out of pocket in a year — is $1,000 per family in Group A and $1,324 in Group B.
Retirees: annual enrollment fees
| Plan and group | Individual | Family |
|---|---|---|
| Prime, Group A | $381.96 | $765 |
| Prime, Group B | $462.96 | $927 |
| Select, Group A | $186.96 | $375 |
| Select, Group B | $594.96 | $1,191 |
Catastrophic caps for retirees run $3,000 per family on Prime Group A, $4,635 on Prime Group B, and $4,381 on Select Group A — dropping to $3,000 for medically retired sponsors, their families and survivors.
The premium-based plans
| Plan | Member only | Member and family |
|---|---|---|
| TRICARE Reserve Select | $57.88/mo | $286.66/mo |
| TRICARE Retired Reserve | $645.90/mo | $1,548.30/mo |
| TRICARE Young Adult — Prime option | $794/mo | — |
| TRICARE Young Adult — Select option | $363/mo | — |
All 2026 figures from the official TRICARE Costs and Fees Sheet, which states they apply January 1 through December 31, 2026. Verified August 1, 2026. Fees are reset each year — check the source before you budget past December.
We're not publishing 2027 numbers. You may see a $610 individual / $1,220 family TRICARE For Life enrollment fee quoted for 2027. That figure comes from a Congressional Budget Office budget option — a proposal for lawmakers to consider, not enacted policy. TRICARE has published no 2027 fees. The one exception is pharmacy copays, which TRICARE has officially stated hold through 2027.
Dental and vision are not in any of this
None of the plans above include routine dental. Dental is a separate program with separate enrollment — see the dental guide. Vision is partly covered under medical and partly a separate purchase; see the vision guide. These two catch more families than anything else on this site.
When you can change plans
Not whenever you like. You can enroll or switch during TRICARE Open Season, which has run in November and early December in recent years, or within 90 days of a Qualifying Life Event — a move, a marriage, a birth, a retirement, a change in sponsor status. As of August 1, 2026 TRICARE had not published the dates for the next open season, so we're not printing a range you might plan around and find wrong. Watch tricare.mil/openseason.
Related: East vs. West regions · How referrals work · Finding a doctor
TRICARE benefit rules change on contract cycles and at the turn of each calendar year. This guide was checked against tricare.mil on August 1, 2026. If something here doesn't match what your regional contractor tells you, they're right and we want to know — use the form below.