Most articles about USAA Medicare Supplement skip the two questions that actually decide whether you should buy it. Who is on the hook for the claims, and does your military health coverage already do the job for free?
The answers are unusually clear. USAA Life Insurance Company underwrites the policies itself, which two state insurance departments confirm independently. And if you have TRICARE For Life, the federal government’s own 2026 cost matrix says you pay nothing for services Medicare and TRICARE both cover, which makes a Medigap premium very hard to justify. Both points below, with the filed rates.
Who Actually Underwrites It
USAA writes its own Medigap. The disclosure on USAA’s Medicare Supplement page reads: “Medicare Supplement insurance provided by USAA Life Insurance Company, San Antonio, TX.”
That is corroborated by regulators, not just by USAA. The Maryland Insurance Administration’s rate guide as of July 1, 2026 lists USAA Life Insurance Company, 9800 Fredericksburg Road, San Antonio, TX 78288, with its own filed premium table for Plans A, F, G, and N. Washington’s Office of the Insurance Commissioner lists USAA in its 2026 approved Medigap chart with rates effective August 1, 2026. Nevada’s 2026 guide lists USAA Life Insurance Company too.
Where USAA does act as a middleman is everywhere else in Medicare. Its Medicare hub says USAA offers “a range of additional Medicare coverage, including USAA plans and options through Humana and Aetna,” and separately, “We’re partnering with Humana and their Medicare Advantage plans to meet veterans’ health care needs.” Those Medicare Advantage and drug plans are Humana’s and Aetna’s products sold through USAA Life General Agency, and USAA’s own footnote warns, “We do not offer every plan available in your area.” So the distinction is: Medigap is USAA’s, Medicare Advantage sold through USAA is not.
Which States, Which Plan Letters
USAA’s page contradicts itself on availability, and both statements sit on the same screen.
The body text says USAA offers Medicare Supplement “in all states except Massachusetts, Minnesota and Wisconsin,” and that in New York and New Jersey the plans are “only available by phone.” The legal footnote below says the coverage is “Not available in MA, MN, NJ, NY, and WI.” Those cannot both be right about New York and New Jersey. If you live in either, call before you plan around it.
On plan letters, USAA’s state-specific policy form numbers cover Plans A, F, G, and N, and the three state rate guides we pulled show exactly that lineup in Maryland, Nevada, and Washington. That is a narrower shelf than most carriers, which typically file six or more letters. Plans C and F are closed to anyone who first became eligible for Medicare on or after January 1, 2020, so for most new enrollees the real choice is Plan G or Plan N.
USAA also does something unusual in Maryland: it files unisex rates. Nearly every competitor in that guide files separate male and female premiums, with women typically paying 10% to 15% less. A unisex filing is better for women shopping the same letter, worse for men, and it is the kind of detail that only shows up in the regulator’s chart.
What USAA Medigap Costs
| USAA Life plan | Maryland, age 65 (unisex non-smoker) | Maryland, age 75 | Maryland, age 85 | Washington (any age) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan A | $350 | $488 | $625 | $155 |
| Plan F (pre-2020 eligibles only) | $233 | $326 | $418 | $343 |
| Plan G | $215 | $287 | $461 | $309 |
| Plan N | $185 | $258 | $331 | $224 |
Maryland is attained-age, meaning your premium rises every year with your age plus whatever general increases USAA files. That Plan G column tells the story: $215 at 65, $238 at 70, $287 at 75, $356 at 80, and $461 at 85. The premium more than doubles across 20 years. Washington is a community-rated state, so a single price applies at every age, which is why its Plan G looks expensive at 65 and cheap at 85.
One oddity in that table is real, not a typo: at age 85 Maryland’s filing prices USAA’s Plan G above its Plan F, even though Plan F covers everything Plan G does plus the Part B deductible. Closed Plan F blocks and open Plan G blocks age differently, and the filed rates reflect that. Ask USAA to confirm both quotes if you are near that age.
Two more filed details. USAA’s Maryland smoker rates run about 24% above non-smoker for Plan G, $266 against $215. And Maryland’s guide shows USAA filing a 5% household discount for those who qualify, which is smaller than the 10% to 12% several competitors in the same chart file.
In Nevada’s 2026 guide, USAA was the lowest-priced Plan G in the entire chart at $1,888 a year, about $157 a month. That guide is worth a caveat: the Nevada Division of Insurance builds its premium tables from a September 2024 carrier survey even in the 2026 edition, and quotes them for a 65-year-old non-smoking woman in Las Vegas ZIP 89102. Treat it as directional, not current.
On top of any of these you still pay Medicare the standard $202.90 Part B premium in 2026, per the CMS fact sheet released November 14, 2025. Medigap never replaces that.
The TRICARE For Life Question
This is the section that matters most, and the honest answer is uncomfortable for anyone selling a policy.
TRICARE For Life is Medicare-wraparound coverage for TRICARE-eligible people who have both Medicare Part A and Part B. TRICARE’s 2026 cost matrix lays out what you pay:
| Type of service | Medicare pays | TRICARE pays | You pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Covered by Medicare and TRICARE | Medicare-approved amount | Remaining amount | Nothing |
| Covered by Medicare only | Medicare-approved amount | Nothing | Medicare deductible and cost share |
| Covered by TRICARE only | Nothing | TRICARE-allowable amount | TRICARE deductible and cost share |
TFL charges $0 in enrollment fees or premiums. It pays your Medicare deductibles, $1,736 for a Part A hospital benefit period and $283 for the Part B annual deductible in 2026, for services both programs cover. On a hospital stay it picks up the $434 per day Medicare coinsurance for days 61 through 90. The TRICARE deductible itself is $150 per individual or $300 per family, and the family catastrophic cap is $3,000 a year.
Now compare that to what a Medigap plan does. Medigap’s entire job is paying Medicare’s deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance. TFL already does that, for free, with a lower ceiling than most people ever hit.
And here is the part that closes the argument. TRICARE.mil states that if you have other health insurance “such as a Medicare supplement or an employer-sponsored health plan, you can use TFL as long as you have both Medicare Part A and Part B,” and it spells out the payer order for coverage not tied to current employment: Medicare pays first, the other insurance pays second, and TRICARE pays last. So buying Medigap does not add a layer on top of TFL. It inserts a paid layer underneath it, absorbing costs TFL would have absorbed anyway.
There are narrow situations where it still makes sense: care that TRICARE does not cover but Medicare does, or an anticipated move overseas where TFL rules differ. Those are real but uncommon. If you have TFL and a broker cannot name a specific gap the Medigap policy fills that TFL does not, that is your answer. Our TRICARE cost guide covers what TRICARE charges across its plans.
VA Health Care Is a Different Story
VA health care and Medigap do not overlap the way TFL does, because they cover different care. VA health care pays for care you receive through the VA system. Medicare, plus a Medigap policy, pays for care you receive outside it.
VA’s own guidance encourages veterans to sign up for Medicare as soon as they can, and it is direct about why: if you delay Part B and later need to enroll because you lose VA benefits or want more choice in where you get care, “you’ll pay a penalty.” That is a permanent surcharge, and our Medicare late enrollment penalty guide explains how it is calculated.
The practical question is how much of your care actually runs through the VA. If you are in a high VA priority group with a nearby VA facility and you use it for nearly everything, a Medigap premium is buying protection you rarely draw on. If you live far from a VA medical center, use community care, or want unrestricted access to any Medicare provider, the Medigap math looks much better.
Who It’s Good For and Who Should Skip It
A good fit if you have Medicare but not TRICARE For Life. USAA membership is not limited to retirees with 20 years of service, and plenty of eligible members have no military health benefit at all. For them USAA Life is simply another Medigap carrier to price against the field.
A good fit if you are a woman in a unisex-rated state. USAA’s Maryland filing gives women the same rate as men, which in that chart is a genuine advantage over gender-rated competitors.
Think twice if you have TRICARE For Life. Everything above.
Think twice if you assume USAA is cheapest because you like USAA. It was the lowest Plan G in Nevada’s chart and roughly mid-pack in Maryland’s. Brand loyalty is not a pricing strategy when the benefits are federally identical.
Think twice if you might want more than four plan letters. USAA does not file high-deductible Plan G in the states we checked, which is the cheapest way into Medigap for healthy people who can absorb the $2,950 deductible.
The Bottom Line
USAA Medicare Supplement is a real, self-underwritten product from USAA Life Insurance Company, priced from $185 to $461 a month across the plan letters and ages in the two current state charts we pulled. It is not a referral to somebody else’s policy.
Do this before you buy. Confirm whether you have TRICARE For Life, and if you do, ask what specific cost the Medigap policy covers that TFL does not, since TRICARE pays last behind any Medigap plan. Pull your own state’s Medicare supplement rate guide and compare USAA’s filed premium against every other carrier in the same table, including Humana, Blue Cross Blue Shield, AARP/UnitedHealthcare, Mutual of Omaha, Cigna, State Farm, and United American. And apply during your six-month Medigap open enrollment period, because after it closes carriers can underwrite you or decline you outright.
If you are still weighing the structure of the whole decision, read Medigap cost and Plan G versus Plan N next.