Defense Department sets 2027 TRICARE costs; Prime enrollment for Group A retirees rises to $396

Military retirees and their families who get health coverage through TRICARE will pay slightly more in 2027. A Defense Department notice, filed for public inspection on November 10 and scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on November 12, sets the enrollment fees, deductibles, copayments and annual catastrophic caps for TRICARE Prime and TRICARE Select that apply from January 1, 2027.

According to the notice, the defense authorization acts for fiscal years 2012 and 2017, and the regulations that carry them out, let these amounts rise with the cost-of-living adjustment used for military retired pay, or under budget-neutrality rules. The notice puts the 2027 retiree adjustment at 3.6%.

Set side by side with the 2026 notice, the new figures show each retiree enrollment fee rising by about 3.6% to 3.7%, by our calculation. A Group A retiree family in TRICARE Prime will pay $792.96 a year to enroll, up from $765. A Group B retiree family in TRICARE Select will pay $1,233.96, up from $1,191.

Group A and Group B

TRICARE charges two sets of rates. Its 2026 costs and fees summary places beneficiaries in Group A if their own or their sponsor's initial enlistment or appointment began before January 1, 2018, and in Group B if it began on or after that date.

Copays for retirees

Retirees and their family members in Prime will pay $27 for a primary care visit, up from $26, and $41 for a specialty or urgent care visit, up from $39. An emergency room visit rises from $79 to $82. In Select, network primary care rises from $38 to $40 in Group A and from $33 to $34 in Group B, and a network emergency room visit rises from $138 to $143 in Group A and from $105 to $109 in Group B.

The Select deductible for Group A retirees stays at $150 for an individual and $300 for a family. For Group B, the individual deductible rises to $205 in the network and $411 outside it, from $198 and $397. Not every amount goes up: the network copay for outpatient ground ambulance service in Select falls from $117 to $115 for Group A retirees.

The notice keeps a $3,000 annual cap for Select Group A retirees who are survivors of active-duty sponsors who died, or who are medically retired members or their dependents.

Active-duty families

Active-duty family members pay no enrollment fee in either plan and, in Prime, no deductible or copays, the notice's table shows. It adds that Prime enrollees other than active-duty service members who go to a specialist or get non-emergency hospital care without a referral or authorization pay the point-of-service deductible and copayment instead of Prime copays.

In Select, Group A deductibles stay at $50 for an individual in pay grades E-1 to E-4 and $150 for E-5 and above. Group B deductibles rise from $66 to $68 and from $198 to $205. A network primary care visit rises from $28 to $30 in Group A and from $19 to $20 in Group B. The Group B catastrophic cap for these families rises from $1,324 to $1,372, while Group A's stays at $1,000.

What is still to come

One rate in the retiree table is still the 2026 figure. The notice says the 2027 amount will be available in mid-December, once Diagnosis Related Group payment rates are calculated. The notice covers Prime and Select only; TRICARE's summary points beneficiaries to tricare.mil/comparecosts for detailed costs, including those for TRICARE For Life, survivors and medically retired members.