military benefits?

I was just wondering about the military medical benefits. Are they very good, and what abbout military maternity benefits for dependents?
My husband is a USAF HPSP in his first year of med school. I know that we are not elgible for benefits until residency, but I was just wondering about how good they were.
Lauren

[mommax3]

Lauren,

I will write more later when I have time, but actually you ARE eligible for benefits whenever your husband does active duty time, as he will a few times during med school, unless something has changed since my husband was in med school ('93 -'97).

More later,

Sally

[DCJenn]

Sally-

You beat me to the punch! Actually Kate, as Sally mentioned, you're eligible for medical benefits anytime they're on active duty. You're also able to use the PX/BX four times a year as a reservist spouse.

Once he's active duty, all medical care is covered except for your dental and vision. (I think my husband pays a whopping 9 bucks a month for my dental coverage.) There are certain treatments and procedures that are theoretically not paid for but after one of my husbands AF counterparts got a boob job paid for through military (it was done at the Army hospital as 'training' for the Army surgeons) I think you can pretty much get whatever you need done. Of course she was the HPSP graduate, so I'm sure they're more strict for us civilian spouses.

Welcome to the military. The key thing to remember is that there are no guarantees and that the AF needs will always come first!

Jenn

[mommax3]

Okay, I'm back, but Jenn covered the subject thoroughly!

When my husband was in his first year of med school, I met someone through the spouses' group there that was Navy HPSP. She had one child and was expecting another. Here is the way they did it -- when she found out she was pregnant, her husband would schedule an active duty rotation for the month that she was due. She would go with him to his rotation, and have the baby while he was "active", so the delivery and hospital stay for both her and the baby were covered. I thought that really took guts -- more guts than I had!

So, just food for thought. I was a chicken and didn't want to enter the "system" until I had to -- but I also had good insurance through my job. By and large, the care my kids and I have gotten has been good to excellent, and when you are in residency, you will be at a large med center, (and you will have a built-in advocate in your husband) so things should be fine for you.

Hope that helps.

Sally

[peggyfromwastate]

Hi- Just wanted to add that at least at USUHS (they are active duty reserve, but it seems that the family gets full medical benefits just as if he were regular active duty) the dental package costs about $17 a month for spouse and dependents. A great deal!

Does anyone know if there is any type of optometrist coverage???

Also, the prescription copays are a huge benefit at least for our family. So far two of our 3 children are asthmatics, our son has a severe allergy to mustard, and I have asthma and a history of complicated pregnancies. Civilian copays have been killing us, even though my husband's medical coverage in his current job is considered very good.

We look at the military medical benefits as just fantastic, with the full understanding that should we end up based at a small clinic we may have difficulty getting quick access to specialists, and sometimes there are significant staffing problems. But we really don't know, since we're not there yet! Many experienced spouses have posted on this type of thing before though- probably b/c of some questions I asked!

Anyway, hope this helps!



Peggy

My advice would be keep your own health insurance while your husband is in medical school. Better than gambling. Trust me. I once went without health insurance for a month, I got very very sick, and I was paying the $1200 for months afterward. If you take time off of work to have a baby, your benefits should still cover you. If you quit, you could get COBRA.

I have health insurance for no charge through my job, and as long as we live in this area, I'm keeping it. Technically, I have TriCare through my husband, as he is a resident and thus active duty, but my primary insurance is through my job. So I'm covered no matter what.