WASHINGTON, June 24 — Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Virginia, issued the following news release on June 23, 2022:
Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) introduced an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act today to expand TRICARE coverage and allow young adults to remain on their parents’ policy until age 26 without additional costs, potentially saving military families thousands of dollars a year.
Rep. Luria’s amendment would expand TRICARE coverage to beneficiaries by conforming the current policy with options offered by private insurance plans, which allows children up to age 26 to remain on their parents’ health insurance plans at no additional out of pocket cost. The amendment could save military families more than $6,000 a year.
“Military families currently do not have the same benefit of allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ health care plan like civilians do,” Rep. Luria said. “My amendment would save military families thousands of dollars a year while bringing long-overdue parity between military and civilian families. It is regrettable that the committee continues to fail to identify spending offsets to support military families and expand their health care benefits to match civilian families.”
Under current policy, TRICARE dependents are only permitted to stay on their parents’ policy until they are 21 years old. If the dependent is enrolled in a full-time course of study at an approved institution of higher learning and the parent provides more than half of the dependent’s financial support, the dependent can remain on the TRICARE policy until the age of 23 or until out of school, whichever comes first. For a dependent to remain on their parent’s plan until age 26, the sponsor is charged an additional fee per month.
In January 2021, Rep. Luria reintroduced the amendment as the Health Care Fairness for Military Families Act.
Congresswoman Elaine Luria represents Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District. She serves on the House Armed Services Committee, where she is the committee’s Vice Chair, the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, where she serves as Chair of the Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee, and the House Committee on Homeland Security.
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Original text here: https://luria.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-luria-introduces-fy-2023-ndaa-amendment-to-allow-young-adults-to-stay-on-tricare-health-plans-until-age-26
