Retired Abroad: TRICARE and Medicare Overseas

TLDR

A retiree living overseas is NOT eligible for TRICARE Prime; your plan is TRICARE Select Overseas.
Military Treatment Facility (MTF) care for a retiree is strictly space-available, which is a possibility, never a promise.
Medicare generally stops at the U.S. border and pays nothing overseas.
You MUST keep Medicare Parts A and B to keep your TRICARE For Life (TFL) eligibility abroad. Dropping Part B to save the premium will cost you your TFL coverage entirely.
Because Medicare pays nothing abroad, a payer flip occurs: TRICARE becomes the FIRST payer for overseas TFL care. You pay up front and file claims with International SOS.

Your plan abroad is Select

A retiree overseas is NOT eligible for TRICARE Prime Overseas or Prime Remote Overseas; TRICARE Select Overseas is the overseas retiree plan.

A retiree is not automatically enrolled in TRICARE at retirement. You need to enroll within 90 days after retirement for continuous coverage. Retroactive enrollment may be requested up to 12 months after retirement, with applicable fees paid retroactively. After 12 months, you generally must wait for Open Season or another Qualifying Life Event (QLE). Moving overseas can itself be a QLE (giving you a 90-day window from the address change) when it changes your plan or region situation.

The Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) must be updated after retirement, separation, relocation, marriage or divorce, Medicare eligibility, death, and other eligibility events.

For calendar year 2026 (CY2026), TRICARE Select deductibles for retirees are:

Group A: $150 individual / $300 family.
Group B: $198 individual / $397 family (network), and $397 individual / $794 family (non-network).

Retirees and retiree family members pay the applicable Select enrollment fees.

The base hospital question

Retirees not enrolled in an applicable plan may receive MTF direct care IF SPACE IS AVAILABLE. There is no universal retiree MTF priority category. Space-available is a possibility, never a promise.

At 65: Medicare stops at the border

Medicare generally does not pay for care obtained outside the United States. "Outside the United States" means anywhere other than the 50 states, the District of Columbia (DC), Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

There are narrow statutory exceptions to this rule: a foreign hospital closer than the nearest able U.S. hospital in a U.S.-side emergency; travel through Canada between Alaska and another state; and living in the U.S. with a foreign hospital closer to home.

Medicare Parts A and B are required to keep TRICARE For Life eligibility — including while living overseas. Dropping Part B to save the premium therefore costs the beneficiary their TFL eligibility completely.

TRICARE For Life overseas works differently than it does back home. Because Medicare pays nothing abroad, TRICARE is the PRIMARY payer for overseas TFL care unless the beneficiary has other health insurance. This means stateside, TFL pays after Medicare; but overseas, Medicare pays nothing and TRICARE pays FIRST. The beneficiary pays up front and the TRICARE Overseas Program (TOP) contractor processes the claim. Medicare and the stateside TFL contractor do not process overseas claims.

Paying and claiming abroad

Overseas providers may require payment up front. The beneficiary then files DD Form 2642 with the TOP claims processor for reimbursement. International SOS is the TRICARE Overseas Program (TOP) claims processor.

Overseas claims must generally be filed within 3 years of the date of service or discharge from inpatient care.

Filing requires DD Form 2642, a fully itemized bill, and receipts. The bill must show the patient name, dates of care, a description of each item or service, the provider name and physical address, and the charge per item. Current TOP instructions require proof of payment with overseas claims.

The traps

Assuming TRICARE Prime is available to retirees overseas — it is not.
Dropping Medicare Part B because "Medicare doesn't pay abroad anyway" — doing this ends your TRICARE For Life eligibility entirely.
Expecting Medicare to reimburse foreign care, and failing to understand the payer flip: stateside, TFL pays after Medicare; overseas, Medicare pays nothing and TRICARE pays FIRST.
Counting on MTF base hospital care that is only space-available.
Missing the 90-day post-retirement enrollment window and landing in retroactive fees.
Letting an overseas medical claim age past the 3-year filing window.

Where to go

The DEERS/identification (ID) card office — to update your address and status after your move or retirement.
TRICARE enrollment via the TOP contractor — to enroll in TRICARE Select Overseas.
International SOS — to file your overseas medical claims and submit DD Form 2642.
Social Security Administration (SSA)/Medicare — for Part B questions and to maintain your Part A and B enrollment.