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With all of the gloom and doom that’s in the news these days related to our economy, here’s one piece of good news we can look forward to for 2009: if you are a Reserve or Guard family receiving medical coverage through the TRICARE Reserve Select program, get ready to save some money!

Tricare announced toward the end of November that their rates would be dropping for both single member and family coverage. We got our official notice in the mail yesterday – the monthly premium for TRS coverage has changed to $47.51 for the member only coverage, and $180.17 for member and family coverage.

I know there has been quite a bit of discussion about whether Reserve and Guard members should have this insurance option. This past year, while I was doing research for my book, Weekend Warrior No More, I ran across a transcript of a discussion in a Congressional hearing where a pro-military group actually spoke against Reserve and Guard members getting this optional health benefit when not actively deployed, and suggested that the employers of Reserve and Guard members should receive some type of funding to be applied toward the premiums they paid for those specific employees. As the wife of a Navy reservist who has been unemployed since July (and has yet to be hired by anyone else, in part we think because of his Reserve – and deployable – status), I am grateful that Congress and our military have thought differently. It’s a huge blessing not to have to worry about our health insurance regardless of our civilian job status, as well as not having to deal with the transition back and forth of doctors, etc., when deployment and active status does occur. We actually switched to the TRICARE Reserve Select plan after my husband came home from deployment instead of using his civilian employer’s plan again because even at $253 a month, it was much lower than the almost $400 we were paying through the employer’s health coverage before our deployment. Now we’re saving even more.

My husband said several in his unit are on the Reserve Select plan also; the decrease in rates will be a small but appreciated piece of encouragement for military families who aren’t always close enough to receive all of the benefits they are entitled to as members of the military.

Considering that a family currently pays $253 a month, we’ll be saving $72.83 each month. Multiply that by 12, and we’re saving $873.96 annually. I wonder what we could do with those savings…

• Apply to old debts and pay them off (I highly recommend Dave Ramsey’s snowball method)
• Put those savings away each month and build up an emergency fund so you don’t have to rely on those credit cards.
• Save toward a downpayment (or payment in full) for a new car.
• Pick a worthy organization like the USO or Wounded Soldiers Project and pass on the blessing
• Hire a babysitter and go out for a nice dinner with your honey!

So, Reserve and Guard spouses, what will you do with the little bit of savings we’re looking forward to?