Tricare Rate Hikes: Premiums for Young Adults, Retired and Reserve Troops Jump Sharply for 2nd Straight Year

Health insurance premiums are going up in 2024 for U.S. military reservists, young adults and transitioning service members enrolled in Tricare or the Continued Health Care Benefit Program.

For Tricare in particular, the 2024 premiums represent back-to-back years of across-the-board increases ranging from 3.7% to 11.8%.

For a general cost comparison against civilian health plans, the average Affordable Care Act premium for a 40-year-old individual is $469 in 2023, according to an analysis by Forbes, and for a couple with two children, the average is $1,491.

Service members' adult children ages 21-26 who enroll in Tricare Young Adult Prime will shoulder the biggest increase at 11.8%, rising from $570 per month in calendar year 2023 to $637 in 2024. The premium had already gone up 10.7% in 2023.

The premiums of adult children ages 21-26 who instead enroll in Tricare Young Adult Select, considered minimal essential coverage under the Affordable Care Act, will go up 6.9%, from $291 per month in 2023 to $311 in 2024. The 2023 increase was 9.4% over the 2022 rate.

Transitioning service members who enroll in the Continued Health Care Benefit Program in 2024 will pay some of the next-highest increases.

Individuals will pay 8.8% more, with premiums rising from $1,654 per calendar quarter in 2023 to $1,813 in 2024. For families, premiums will rise from $4,134 per quarter in 2023 to $4,539 in 2024, a 9.8% increase. The individual premium had stayed the same in 2023 from its prior increase in 2021, while the family premium had gone up 1.3%.

Current and retired reservists and their families will absorb increases in the 6% range in 2024.

Tricare Reserve Select premiums will increase 7.2% in 2024 for individual service members as well as families. Individual members will pay $51.95 per month in 2024, up from $48.47. Families will pay $256.87 per month, rising from $239.69. The individual and family premiums had gone up 3.7% and 4.1%, respectively, in 2023.

Tricare Retired Reserve premiums will go up the least at 6.5%. Individuals will pay $585.24 per month in 2024, up from $549.35. Families will pay $1,406.22, rising from 1,320.76. The individual and family premiums had gone up 8.9% and 9.0%, respectively, in 2023.

-- Amanda Miller can be reached at amanda.miller@military.com.