Mandatory Spending
Function 550 - Health
Introduce Minimum Out-of-Pocket Requirements in TRICARE for Life
CBO periodically issues a compendium of policy options (called Options for Reducing the Deficit) covering a broad range of issues, as well as separate reports that include options for changing federal tax and spending policies in particular areas. This option appears in one of those publications. The options are derived from many sources and reflect a range of possibilities. For each option, CBO presents an estimate of its effects on the budget but makes no recommendations. Inclusion or exclusion of any particular option does not imply an endorsement or rejection by CBO.
Billions of dollars | 2025 | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 | 2030 | 2031 | 2032 | 2033 | 2034 | 2025– | 2025– | ||
Change in outlays | ||||||||||||||
MERHCF | 0 | 0.1 | 0.1 | -1.8 | -2.8 | -3.0 | -3.2 | -3.3 | -3.5 | -3.6 | -4.4 | -21.0 | ||
Medicare | 0 | 0 | 0 | -0.5 | -1.3 | -1.6 | -1.7 | -1.7 | -1.8 | -1.9 | -1.8 | -10.5 | ||
Total | 0 | 0.1 | 0.1 | -2.3 | -4.1 | -4.6 | -4.9 | -5.0 | -5.3 | -5.5 | -6.2 | -31.5 | ||
This option would take effect in January 2028, although some changes to outlays would occur earlier.
MERHCF = Department of Defense Medicare-Eligible Retiree Health Care Fund.
TRICARE for Life (TFL) is a supplement to Medicare for military retirees and their eligible family members. The program pays nearly all medical costs not covered by Medicare and requires few out-of-pocket fees. About 2.5 million people are enrolled in TFL.
This option would introduce minimum out-of-pocket requirements for TFL beneficiaries. Beginning in calendar year 2028, TFL would not cover the first $850 of an enrollee's cost-sharing payments (those costs for which enrollees are responsible when they receive health care) under Medicare and would cover only 50 percent of the next $7,650 of such payments. All further costs would be covered by TFL, so enrollees would not be obligated to pay more than $4,675. After 2028, those dollar limits would be indexed to grow at the same rate as average Medicare costs (excluding Part D drug benefits). To reduce beneficiaries' incentive to avoid out-of-pocket costs by switching to military facilities (which currently charge no copayments for hospital services provided to TFL beneficiaries), this option would also require TFL beneficiaries seeking care from those facilities to make payments roughly comparable to the charges they would face at civilian facilities. This option would reduce spending for Medicare as well as for TFL because higher out-of-pocket costs would lead beneficiaries to use fewer medical services.