TRICARE Explains Joint Coverage Restriction

TRICARE, the health-care program for service members and their families, has issued an explanation of a rule that went into effect Jan. 1 regarding coverage by more than one health care plan. The rule, enacted in the 2007 defense bill, bars employers from offering financial or other incentives to some TRICARE-eligible employees if they decide to decline employer-sponsored coverage. The TRICARE statement explained that the law is intended to thwart any incentive to shift health-care costs to the government and taxpayers, and follows a long-standing policy of forbidding such incentives for other government-sponsored health-care packages, such as Medicare. Companies can offer comparable incentives to TRICARE-eligible employees, however, if those incentives are also available to all employees.