Premiums for a health program that covers military dependents ages 21 to 26 will range from nearly $400 to almost $900 a month next year.
The Defense Health Agency has not released full details of Tricare changes expected in 2027, but updates to its operations manual this month show that beneficiaries ages 21 to 26 who use Tricare Young Adult, or TYA, will pay $893 for TYA Prime or $394 per month for TYA Select beginning Jan. 1.
The increases — of 12.5% and 8.5% respectively, from 2026 — were first reported by Federal News Network.
Tricare Young Adult was established in 2011 to provide military dependents a coverage extension similar to the one required by the Affordable Care Act, which mandated that private health insurers cover children on their parents’ employee-based healthcare policies up to age 26.
By law, however, TYA must cover the full cost of providing Tricare benefits, and under this construct, beneficiaries pay monthly premiums.
Premiums for TYA Prime have always been higher than those for TYA Select, once known as TYA Standard. TYA Prime requires patients to see a primary care provider, often based in a military hospital or contract clinic, requires referrals for specialty care and has no deductibles or copayments.
TYA Select allows patients to see any physician, including specialists, without a referral, and offers savings for seeing network providers. It has a higher deductible and requires copayments.
The small number of patients enrolled in TYA Prime — 1,287 — are bearing the costs of the program, according to the Defense Health Agency.
“A relatively small pool of insured population, combined with a high number of healthcare encounters, result in higher premium rates, particularly for TYA Prime,” DHA officials said in a statement to Military Times.
The increases represent a 192% increase in TYA Prime premiums and 73% increase for TYA Select premiums since 2016. A decade ago, TYA Prime enrollees paid $306 a month in premiums while those in TYA Standard paid $228 per month.
At the time, 26,910 beneficiaries were enrolled in TYA Prime while 18,273 had TYA Standard.
According to DHA, roughly 27,600 beneficiaries are currently enrolled in TYA Select.
The new rates translate to $4,728 to $10,716 in added healthcare costs for active-duty military and retiree families with young adult beneficiaries. Active-duty families without older children have no enrollment fees or premiums for Tricare Prime and, depending on rank and date of enlistment, pay between $50 and $397 a year for Tricare Select plus out-of-pocket costs.
Retiree families pay between $765 and $1,191 per year in enrollment fees and bear out-of-pocket costs.
The National Military Family Association, an Alexandria, Virginia-based non-profit that advocates for military personnel and their dependents, said the information provided by the Defense Health Agency on the rising costs of TYA doesn’t “fully explain the underlying factors driving the increases.”
In a message posted on its website, the group said it is trying to determine the changes in healthcare use or costs that have contributed to the increases and what is attributable to rising medical expenses.
Also, the organization is seeking to determine why costs have risen for TYA Prime at rates faster than TYA Select.
Eileen Huck, director of government relations for the National Military Family Association, said the group is concerned that military dependents will forego health coverage if premiums continue to rise.
“It is a vicious cycle because the costs are fully borne by the beneficiary. There’s no government offset. So, as the costs have gone up, young people who either can find less expensive options or feel that they are healthy enough to go without, risk going without health coverage,” Huck told Military Times in an interview.
Tricare Young Adult offers coverage to unmarried dependents under age 26 of Tricare-eligible sponsors who don’t have access to employee-offered healthcare or meet the age requirements to remain on regular Tricare — age 21, or 23 if the beneficiary is a full-time college student.
Since 2021, members of Congress have supported legislation that would allow military dependents to stay on Tricare until age 26, similar to the young adult children of employees enrolled in their company’s health plans.
The current iteration of the bill, sponsored by Rep. Patrick Ryan, D-N.Y., in the House and Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., in the Senate, has 98 sponsors from both political parties.
“We absolutely feel that it’s unfair for military families to have to pay extra for their young adults’ health coverage when … civilian families with employer-based plans get that coverage automatically,” Huck said.
She added that barring passage of that legislation, NMFA would like to see all young adult beneficiaries have access to Tricare until at least age 23. Currently, dependents lose coverage under their sponsor at age 21 if they aren’t enrolled in college.
“It really makes no sense that health coverage is connected to college enrollment,” Huck said. “We’ve always been concerned that large numbers of military-connected young adults are going without health coverage because of the cost.”
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the annual cost of a U.S. family’s employer-provided healthcare plan was an average $28,303 in 2026.
