TRICARE’s cost tables are confusing for a reason that has nothing to do with the plans themselves. Your out-of-pocket cost depends on three variables at once: which plan you are in, whether your sponsor is active duty or retired, and whether your sponsor first enlisted before or after January 1, 2018. Miss the third and you will read the wrong row.
Everything below is calendar year 2026, pulled on September 6, 2026 from tricare.mil’s own cost pages and cross-checked against the TRICARE 2026 Costs and Fees Sheet that the Defense Health Agency updated in May 2026. The two sources agree on every figure quoted here.
Group A vs Group B: Read This First
TRICARE splits every beneficiary into one of two groups based on the sponsor’s service start date.
- Group A: your sponsor’s initial enlistment or appointment began before January 1, 2018.
- Group B: your sponsor’s initial enlistment or appointment began on or after January 1, 2018.
The group is not about you. It is about the sponsor, and it does not change when you switch plans or when the sponsor retires. It follows the enlistment date permanently.
Why it matters: for a retiree enrolling an individual in TRICARE Select, Group A costs $186.96 a year and Group B costs $594.96. That is more than triple, for identical coverage, decided entirely by a date. Group B also carries higher deductibles and a higher catastrophic cap.
What Active Duty Families Pay
Active duty service members have no out-of-pocket costs for covered services when they follow their plan’s rules. Their families pay very little.
Active duty family members and transitional survivors pay $0 in enrollment fees on both TRICARE Prime and TRICARE Select, in both groups. TRICARE Prime carries no deductible for them either, and network care is $0 across the board: preventive, primary care, specialty, urgent care, emergency, labs and x-rays, hospitalization.
TRICARE Select for active duty families does carry a deductible, and it is tiered by pay grade:
| Active duty family Select deductible (2026) | Group A | Group B |
|---|---|---|
| Pay grades E-1 through E-4 | $50 individual / $100 family | $66 / $132 |
| Pay grades E-5 and above | $150 individual / $300 family | $198 / $397 |
Select copays for active duty families in Group A are $28 for network primary care, $39 for specialty care, $28 for urgent care and $103 for an emergency visit. Group B copays are lower on most lines ($19, $33, $26 and $52), but Group B’s higher deductible and higher catastrophic cap more than offset that over a heavy year.
The Full 2026 Retiree Cost Table
This is the table most people are looking for. It covers retirees, their family members, survivors and other non-active-duty beneficiaries.
| Cost (2026) | Prime, Group A | Select, Group A | Prime, Group B | Select, Group B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enrollment fee, individual | $381.96 | $186.96 | $462.96 | $594.96 |
| Enrollment fee, family | $765 | $375 | $927 | $1,191 |
| Annual deductible | $0 | $150 / $300 | $0 | $198 network, $397 non-network (individual) |
| Catastrophic cap | $3,000 per family | $4,381 per family | $4,635 per family | $4,635 per family |
| Primary care visit (network) | $26 | $38 | $26 | $33 |
| Specialty visit (network) | $39 | $52 | $39 | $52 |
| Urgent care (network) | $39 | $38 | $39 | $52 |
| Emergency visit | $79 | $138 | $79 | $105 |
| Ambulatory surgery (network) | $79 | 20% | $79 | $125 |
| Inpatient admission (network) | $198 per admission | $250/day or 25% of charges, whichever is less, plus 20% of separately billed services | $198 per admission | $231 per admission |
Two exceptions on the Prime enrollment fee. If you are under age 65 and have Medicare Part A and Part B, your Group A Prime fee is waived (confirm with your regional contractor); the waiver does not apply to Group B. And if you are a medically retired sponsor, family member or survivor in Group A, your Prime fee freezes at the rate in effect when you were classified in DEERS, with no break in enrollment. Someone classified before October 1, 2011 still pays $230 individual / $460 family in 2026 against the current $381.96 / $765. That same group pays $0 to enroll in Group A Select, with a $3,000 cap on either plan rather than $4,381.
The Catastrophic Cap Is the Number That Actually Protects You
The catastrophic cap is the most you or your family pay for covered services in a calendar year. Once you reach it, TRICARE picks up your share for the rest of the year, and Prime and Select enrollees stop paying enrollment fees too.
| Status (2026) | Group A cap | Group B cap |
|---|---|---|
| Active duty family member, Prime or Select | $1,000 per family | $1,324 per family |
| Retiree and family, Prime | $3,000 per family | $4,635 per family |
| Retiree and family, Select | $4,381 per family | $4,635 per family |
| Survivor of active duty deceased sponsor, or medically retired member and family | $3,000 per family | $4,635 per family |
| TRICARE For Life | $3,000 per family | $3,000 per family |
Enrollment fees, deductibles, pharmacy copays and cost shares all count toward the cap. Four things do not: costs for non-covered services, Extended Care Health Option liabilities, point-of-service charges, and the balance billed by a non-participating provider (up to 15% above the TRICARE allowable amount). Premiums for TRICARE Reserve Select, TRICARE Retired Reserve, TRICARE Young Adult and the Continued Health Care Benefit Program do not count either.
The point-of-service exclusion is the expensive one. If you have a Prime plan and get non-emergency care from someone other than your primary care manager without a referral, you pay a separate $300 individual / $600 family annual deductible and then 50% of the allowable charge, and none of it moves you toward your cap. Our explainer on in-network vs out-of-network covers why that penalty is structured this way.
TRICARE For Life: No Premium, but Part B Is the Bill
TRICARE For Life charges no premium and no enrollment fee. If you are eligible for premium-free Medicare Part A, you must have both Part A and Part B to have TFL, and the Part B premium is the real recurring cost.
The standard 2026 Part B premium is $202.90 a month, up $17.90 from $185.00 in 2025, per the CMS fact sheet released November 14, 2025. That is $2,434.80 a year, and higher earners pay an income-related adjustment on top, reaching $689.90 a month at the highest bracket.
On the TRICARE side, TFL carries a $150 individual / $300 family deductible that applies only when TRICARE is the sole payer, and a $3,000 family catastrophic cap. Where a service is covered by both Medicare and TRICARE, Medicare pays its approved amount, TRICARE pays the remainder and you pay nothing. Where it is covered by Medicare only, you owe the Medicare deductible and cost share ($1,736 per benefit period for Part A in 2026, $283 a year for Part B). Where neither covers it, you pay billed charges.
TFL is not part of open season and there is nothing to enroll in. It attaches automatically once you have Part A and Part B.
Pharmacy Costs
Pharmacy copays are the same across plans in 2026 and count toward your catastrophic cap.
| Pharmacy (2026) | Generic formulary | Brand formulary | Non-formulary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Military pharmacy, up to 90-day supply | $0 | $0 | Generally not available |
| Home Delivery, up to 90-day supply | $14 | $44 | $85 |
| Retail network pharmacy, up to 30-day supply | $16 | $48 | $85 |
Active duty service members and TRICARE Prime Remote enrollees pay $0 in all three settings. Note the arithmetic on Home Delivery: $14 for 90 days of a generic against $16 for 30 days at retail makes mail order roughly a third of the retail cost over a year.
Premium-Based Plans
Three TRICARE plans charge a monthly premium instead of an annual enrollment fee. Premiums do not count toward the catastrophic cap.
| Plan (2026) | Member only, per month | Member and family, per month | Catastrophic cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| TRICARE Reserve Select | $57.88 | $286.66 | $1,324 per family |
| TRICARE Retired Reserve | $645.90 | $1,548.30 | $4,635 per family |
| TRICARE Young Adult (Prime) | $794 per individual | n/a | $1,324 or $4,635 |
| TRICARE Young Adult (Select) | $363 per individual | n/a | $1,324 or $4,635 |
TRICARE Reserve Select at $57.88 a month for a Selected Reserve member is one of the cheapest real health plans in the country. We break it down in TRICARE Reserve Select cost. TRICARE Young Adult is the opposite story, with a Prime premium of $794 a month that often loses to a marketplace plan; see TRICARE Young Adult cost before you enroll an adult child.
TRICARE Open Season for the 2027 Plan Year
TRICARE Open Season runs November 9 through December 8, 2026. Changes you make take effect January 1, 2027.
Open season applies if you have or qualify for a TRICARE Prime option (including the US Family Health Plan and the TRICARE Prime Demo) or TRICARE Select. It does not apply to active duty service members, TRICARE For Life beneficiaries, or anyone enrolled in TRICARE Reserve Select, TRICARE Retired Reserve or TRICARE Young Adult.
If you are happy with your plan, do nothing. Enrollment continues automatically. If you are eligible but not enrolled and you let open season pass, you are limited to space-available care at a military hospital or clinic until a qualifying life event opens a 90-day window.
Dental and vision run on a separate, overlapping calendar. Federal Benefits Open Season for FEDVIP is November 9 through December 7, 2026, one day shorter, also effective January 1, 2027. FEDVIP is run by the Office of Personnel Management through BENEFEDS, and you need TRICARE health coverage to be eligible for FEDVIP vision.
Have 2027 Rates Been Published?
Not as of September 6, 2026. Every cost page on tricare.mil still reads “calendar year 2026,” and the latest costs and fees sheet is the 2026 edition updated in May 2026. Do not plan around a 2027 figure you find quoted elsewhere: check tricare.mil before open season opens in November.
Direction is known even if the numbers are not. Prime enrollment fees increase every January 1, and the basis is the annual cost of living adjustment for retired military pay. Survivors of sponsors who died on active duty, and medically retired members and their families, are exempt as long as at least one family member has stayed continuously enrolled.
The Bottom Line
Find your group first, then your category, then your plan. In that order the tables stop contradicting each other.
For a Group A retiree, Prime at $381.96 a year with a $3,000 cap and $26 primary care visits usually beats Select at $186.96 with a $150 deductible and a $4,381 cap, unless you need providers Prime will not route you to. For a Group B retiree the Prime fee is lower than the Select fee ($462.96 against $594.96) and the caps are identical at $4,635, making Prime the default on price alone.
If you are comparing TRICARE against VA’s civilian program for survivors and dependents, read CHAMPVA vs TRICARE first, because eligibility for one rules out the other.