What happens to your TRICARE when you get out

For most people leaving active duty, TRICARE ends at 11:59 p.m. on the last day of terminal leave, for the whole family at once. What comes next depends on why you're leaving, and the windows to sign up are short.

Active-duty TRICARE ends at 11:59 p.m. on your last duty day. Some members qualify for 180 days of TAMP; retirees keep TRICARE if they enroll. Other options include CHCBP, a Marketplace or employer plan, and VA health care for the veteran.

When your coverage ends

TRICARE generally ends at 11:59 p.m. on your last duty day. Terminal leave doesn't move that date, because you're still on active duty and your family stays on TRICARE. Terminal leave also isn't a qualifying life event, so it opens no enrollment window. The windows open when you separate or retire.

Dental runs on a different clock. If your family is in the TRICARE Dental Program (TDP), the regulation ends it at 11:59 p.m. on the last day of the month you separate or retire. If your service grants TAMP, the end date is less clear, as the TAMP section explains.

If you have TAMP, your CHCBP and Marketplace windows count from the end of TAMP instead, so the lookup doesn't show them. The two VA rows count from "discharge or release," and VA's pages don't say which date that is. The lookup counts from the date you enter, so apply well before them.

Who gets TAMP, the Transitional Assistance Management Program

TAMP gives you and your family 180 days of TRICARE after your regular coverage ends, with no premiums. It isn't automatic. Your service decides whether you qualify and records it in DEERS, the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System. You can check it in milConnect, or ask your service's personnel office.

TRICARE's TAMP page lists seven groups who may qualify:

• Involuntary separations, including members who get a voluntary separation incentive, or voluntary separation pay without retired or retainer pay
• Guard and Reserve members leaving more than 30 days in a row of active duty for a preplanned mission or a contingency operation
• Guard members leaving more than 30 days in a row of Title 32 502(f) duty that the President or Secretary of Defense authorized to respond to a national disaster
• Members leaving after stop-loss for a contingency operation
• Members leaving after agreeing to stay less than a year for a contingency operation
• Sole survivorship discharges
• Members leaving regular active duty who join the Selected Reserve the very next day

None of these covers retirement or an ordinary separation at the end of your contract, unless you join the Selected Reserve the next day. If you were denied reenlistment, the law counts that as an involuntary separation, but your service still decides.

If you're being separated for a disability without retiring, the sources we checked don't say whether that counts. Ask your personnel office before you plan around TAMP. If you're medically retired, the retiree rules below apply to you.

During TAMP your family can use TRICARE Prime where it's offered, TRICARE Select, the US Family Health Plan, overseas Prime and Select, and military hospitals and clinics. You have 90 days from your separation date, or from the end of TAMP, to change plans. When TAMP ends, it ends for everyone, children included.

Don't work out TAMP's last day yourself. The law counts the 180 days from your separation date and TRICARE's regulation from the day after, so ask your personnel office for the end date your service recorded.

Dental during TAMP is the one point TRICARE doesn't settle. If you're leaving regular active duty, you get only space-available care at military dental clinics. TRICARE's TAMP dental page says family members already in the TDP stay eligible until they lose TRICARE, and those not enrolled can't join now, but it gives no end date. Before you separate, ask the TDP contractor when your family's dental coverage ends.

Buying CHCBP: 60 days to sign up, up to 18 months of coverage

The Continued Health Care Benefit Program (CHCBP) is TRICARE's bridge plan, the main option without TAMP. It gives the same coverage as TRICARE Select, including prescriptions, and it counts as minimum essential coverage under the Affordable Care Act. You can buy it whether you left voluntarily or not, as long as the conditions weren't adverse.

You have 60 days to buy it. Without TAMP, the 60 days start on your separation date, which counts as day 1, or on the date you get the required notice, if that's later. With TAMP, they start when TAMP ends. If you sign up late in the window, coverage still starts the day after your TRICARE or TAMP ended, with no gap, and you pay premiums for that time.

Coverage lasts up to 18 months. You choose self-only or family coverage, and family coverage includes your spouse and children, who get the same 18 months. If you had TAMP first, that's about two years of coverage in a row.

To buy it, send DD Form 2837, proof of eligibility and your first quarterly premium to Humana Military, Attn: CHCBP, P.O. Box 740072, Louisville, KY 40201-7472. Questions go to 800-444-5445. Coverage comes in 90-day blocks, billed each quarter, and Humana sends a renewal notice 30 days before each block ends. If your renewal payment isn't postmarked within 30 days of the expiration date, coverage ends and you can't buy it again.

On top of the premium there's a yearly outpatient deductible. For 2026 it's $66 per person and $132 per family if you left active duty at E-4 or below, and $198 and $397 at E-5 and above. The 2026 catastrophic cap is $1,324 if you left active duty.

The Marketplace, and when a tax credit is still possible

Losing TRICARE or TAMP opens a special enrollment period on the Health Insurance Marketplace. It runs from 60 days before your coverage ends to 60 days after, for anyone in your household who's losing coverage. HealthCare.gov may ask for documents showing your coverage ended, and without acceptable ones you won't qualify.

Timing matters. Pick a plan on or before your last day of coverage, and it starts on the first day of the next month. Pick later, and it usually starts the first of the month after you pick.

Dropping coverage on purpose doesn't count. If you cancel CHCBP or TRICARE Reserve Select, or stop paying the premium, that isn't a loss of coverage and doesn't open a window.

Being able to buy CHCBP, TRICARE Reserve Select, TRICARE Retired Reserve or TRICARE Young Adult doesn't block a Marketplace premium tax credit. Enrolling in one does, for the person enrolled. People who have TRICARE Prime, Select, TRICARE For Life or TAMP don't qualify for that help.

VA health care works the same way for the veteran: being eligible doesn't block a tax credit, but enrolling does. Your spouse and children are judged on their own coverage.

Retirees are different. IRS rules generally treat you as covered if you can enroll in TRICARE Prime or Select, even if you don't. So a retiree, and family members who can get Prime or Select, usually can't get a Marketplace tax credit. Confirm with the Marketplace call center at 1-800-318-2596.

Outside a special enrollment period, you wait for open enrollment, which runs November 1 to January 15 for 2027 coverage on HealthCare.gov. Pick by December 15 for a plan that starts January 1.

Your spouse and children

Your spouse's coverage ends the same night your TRICARE or TAMP does, and the same windows apply. CHCBP family coverage includes your spouse. Their other choices are the Marketplace or their own employer's plan, whose HR can say when they can join.

Children are covered to age 21, or to 23 or graduation, whichever comes first, if they're full-time college students and you provide more than half their support. Their coverage ends on the same day as yours.

A son or daughter aged 21 to 25 on TRICARE Young Adult (TYA) loses it when you end TRICARE coverage or lose eligibility. They may qualify for CHCBP on their own. If you're retiring, TYA stays open to them, but they may need to reenroll. TYA Select costs $363 a month in 2026 and TYA Prime $794. TRICARE's 2027 rates, published September 15, 2026, are $394 and $893. A parent's civilian job-based plan can also cover them until 26, even if they're married, which TYA can't.

After family dental ends, FEDVIP, the federal dental and vision program, is open to most retirees and their families. Members who separate without retiring aren't on its eligibility list.

If you're retiring

Retirees keep TRICARE only if they enroll. You have 90 days after your retirement date to reenroll in TRICARE Prime or enroll in TRICARE Select with no break in coverage. Claims can't be paid until your enrollment is complete, and everyone needs new ID cards.

Within 12 months of your retirement date, you can still ask your regional contractor for retroactive enrollment. Coverage then starts on your retirement date, and you pay enrollment fees back to that date. After 12 months, you can enroll only during TRICARE Open Season or after a new qualifying life event, and until then you can get care only at military hospitals and clinics when space is available. This year's Open Season runs November 9 to December 8, 2026, and changes take effect January 1, 2027.

Prime is offered only in certain stateside areas, not overseas. A family member who's eligible for Medicare needs Medicare Part B to keep TRICARE.

Retirees pay a yearly enrollment fee that depends on when the sponsor first enlisted or was appointed: Group A before January 1, 2018, and Group B on or after. For 2026, Group A pays $381.96 a year for Prime for one person or $765 for a family, and $186.96 or $375 for Select. Group B pays $462.96 or $927 for Prime and $594.96 or $1,191 for Select.

Dental and vision move to FEDVIP, which you pay for in full. FEDVIP vision is open to you only if you're enrolled in a TRICARE health plan. You can enroll from 31 days before your retirement date to 60 days after, and enrolling before your retirement date avoids a gap in dental coverage. Miss the 60 days and you wait for the next Federal Benefits Open Season, which OPM lists as November 9 to December 14, 2026. BENEFEDS, which runs enrollment, is at 1-877-888-3337.

Guard and Reserve

If you're a Guard or Reserve member coming off more than 30 days in a row of active duty for a preplanned mission or a contingency operation, you and your family can get 180 days of TAMP. During TAMP you get the same dental care as a member on active duty for more than 30 days. You also have 90 days after your deactivation date to change TRICARE plans.

When TAMP ends, you may be able to buy TRICARE Reserve Select (TRS). If your form is received or postmarked within 90 days after TAMP ends, there's no break in coverage. You enroll in milConnect under "Benefits," then "Beneficiary Web Enrollment," and the first payment is two months' premiums. In 2026, TRS costs $57.88 a month for you alone or $286.66 for you and your family.

TRS has limits. You can't have it while you're on TAMP or on orders for more than 30 days, if you're eligible for the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, or if you're in the Individual Ready Reserve. If you had the TDP before, it resumes automatically. Guard and Reserve families can buy the TDP before, during or after TAMP.

If you don't qualify for TRS when TAMP ends, CHCBP is the fallback, and its 60 days begin when TAMP ends. If you later leave the Selected Reserve while on TRS, the deadline is unclear: TRICARE's CHCBP page says 30 days after you lose TRS, but the law gives a 60-day period starting when you leave the Selected Reserve. Enroll as soon as TRS ends, and confirm your deadline with Humana Military, the CHCBP contractor, at 800-444-5445.

If you retire from the Guard or Reserve, TRS ends on the day you transfer to the Retired Reserve. Until 60, you can buy TRICARE Retired Reserve if you qualify for non-regular retirement and aren't eligible for the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. It costs $645.90 a month for you alone or $1,548.30 with family in 2026. TRICARE's 2027 rates, published September 15, 2026, are $707.59 and $1,697.70. At 60, the deadline to enroll in a TRICARE health plan is typically 90 days from your birthday.

VA health care

VA health care covers only you, the veteran. You can apply as soon as you have your separation or retirement papers; if you're eligible, VA enrolls you once you've left. There's no general deadline to apply.

If you enlisted after September 7, 1980, or entered active duty after October 16, 1981, you generally need 24 continuous months or the full period you were called up for, with a discharge that was not dishonorable. The 24-month minimum may not apply if you were discharged for a disability caused or made worse by your active-duty service, or for a hardship or "early out." Guard and Reserve service counts if you were called to active duty by federal order and completed the full period; active duty for training alone does not qualify.

If you served in a theater of combat operations and were discharged after September 11, 2001, apply right away. You get 10 years of enhanced eligibility from the date of discharge or release. That places you in a higher priority group, with free care for any condition related to your service in Iraq or Afghanistan for those 10 years.

The PACT Act added a second route. Since March 5, 2024, you can enroll without first applying for disability benefits if you meet the basic rules and served in Iraq, Afghanistan or any other combat zone after 9/11, deployed in support of the Global War on Terror, or were exposed to toxins or other hazards in service. VA's PACT Act page doesn't tie this route to the 10-year window.

What you pay, if anything, depends on your priority group, from group 1, which includes veterans rated 50% or more, to group 8, for income above VA's limits.

You apply on VA Form 10-10EZ: online, by phone at 877-222-8387, by mail to the Health Eligibility Center, PO Box 5207, Janesville, WI 53547-5207, or in person at a VA medical center. Have your DD-214 or other separation papers, your service history and details of any toxic exposure.

One-time VA dental care may cover a noncompensable service-connected dental condition present at discharge. Persian Gulf War-era eligibility generally requires 90 active-duty days, an other-than-dishonorable discharge, no DD-214 certification of complete dental care in the last 90 days, an application within 180 days, and a VA dental exam within 6 months unless delayed through no fault of yours. Ask VA to confirm eligibility and arrange the exam. Later, once you're enrolled in VA health care, you can buy discounted dental insurance through the VA Dental Insurance Program.

One example, start to finish

Example (fictional) Andre Watkins is a 33-year-old Army staff sergeant (E-6) leaving at the end of his enlistment after 12 years. He deployed to Afghanistan in 2019. His separation date, the last day of terminal leave, is March 12, 2027. His personnel office confirms he doesn't qualify for TAMP. His wife, Lena, and their children, 6 and 9, are on TRICARE Prime and the TRICARE Dental Program. His civilian job's health plan has no start date yet, so the family needs a bridge. They have already received notice of CHCBP eligibility.

In February, with separation papers in hand, Andre applies for VA health care. As a combat veteran, he has enhanced eligibility into 2037. VA covers only him, so the couple compares two bridges. A Marketplace plan picked in advance would start April 1, leaving March 13 to 31 uncovered. Family CHCBP covers all four from March 13 with no gap, at TRICARE's published 2027 rate of $5,741 a quarter, or $22,964 a year. They choose CHCBP and mail DD Form 2837 with the first premium in early April, well before the May 10 deadline. Dropping CHCBP on purpose won't open a Marketplace window, so they plan to keep it until the employer plan starts. Andre's DD-214 shows no dental exam and treatment in his last 90 days, so he applies for VA's one-time dental care well before September 8.

This is general information, not advice about your own coverage. Your service's personnel office can tell you whether you qualify for TAMP. For TRICARE and CHCBP questions, call Humana Military at 800-444-5445 (TRICARE East and CHCBP) or TriWest at 888-874-9378 (TRICARE West). For VA health care, call 877-222-8387. For the Marketplace, call 1-800-318-2596.