TRICARE Posted Its Full 2027 Price List: Fees and Caps Rise With the 3.6% COLA, Reserve Premiums Rise More

On November 5, 2026, the TRICARE Newsroom published "Get to know your 2027 TRICARE health plan costs," and tricare.mil's cost comparison page was updated the same day to read "for 2027, unless noted." That completes the price list the September 18 Federal Register notice left open: every enrollment fee, deductible, copayment, catastrophic cap and monthly premium for calendar year 2027 is printed in five tables, effective January 1, 2027. Open season runs November 9 through December 8, 2026. Two things are still not out: the TRICARE For Life 2027 cost matrix, which "will be posted early next year," and any 2027 figure for the Continued Health Care Benefit Program, which the 2026 article carried in a sixth table and this one does not.

Active duty families: the Group B deductible and cap move, Group A copays move

Active duty service members still pay nothing. Their families on TRICARE Prime still pay no enrollment fee, no deductible and no copayments as long as they follow the referral rules. On TRICARE Select the picture splits by group: Group A, a sponsor whose initial enlistment or appointment began before January 1, 2018, keeps the deductibles and the $1,000.00 cap that 10 U.S.C. 1079 writes as fixed dollar amounts; Group B, on or after that date, has indexed figures that moved.

One Group A line went down: the network copayment for an outpatient ground ambulance is $86.00 in 2027 against $88.00 in 2026. The article's own note says costs change "based on the law, the federal cost of living adjustment, and the costs of healthcare services and prescription drugs," and the ambulance figure follows the cost of the service, not the COLA. The catastrophic cap counts deductibles and enrollment fees but not premiums, so $1,372.00 is the most a Group B family pays for covered care in 2027.

Retirees: the fees

Retired sponsors and their families pay the enrollment fees, and the family fee is where the dollars are. Every 2027 fee divides evenly by twelve, to the cent, which is why the Select figures end in odd cents: $1,233.96 is $102.83 a month.

Retiree copayments moved by a dollar or a few. Prime primary care is $27.00 (was $26.00), specialty $41.00 (was $39.00) and an emergency room visit $82.00 (was $79.00), the same in both groups. Select Group A network primary care is $40.00 (was $38.00) and the emergency room $143.00 (was $138.00); Select Group B is $34.00, $54.00 and $109.00 (was $33.00, $52.00 and $105.00). One exception sits in a note: the Select Group A cap for survivors of active duty deaths and for medically retired members and their families stays at $3,000.00, the carve-out in 10 U.S.C. 1075(e)(3).

Why almost every line moved about 3.6 percent

The indexing is in the statute. 10 U.S.C. 1075(d)(2) says each fixed dollar amount in the TRICARE Select table, and the retiree enrollment fee and cap in subsection (e), "shall be annually indexed to the amount by which retired pay is increased under section 1401a of this title, rounded to the next lower multiple of $1," with the leftover cents "carried over to, and accumulated with" later years. 10 U.S.C. 1075a(b)(2) does the same for TRICARE Prime. The retired pay increase under section 1401a for December 2026 is 3.6 percent, from the third-quarter CPI-W, which we worked through when the September index was released. The published figures land where that arithmetic points: $4,635.00 times 1.036 is $4,801.86 and DHA printed $4,802.00; $1,324.00 times 1.036 is $1,371.66 and DHA printed $1,372.00. The dollar of difference on some lines is the carry-over clause at work.

Reserve premiums rose more than the COLA, and that is also the law

TRICARE Reserve Select and TRICARE Retired Reserve are not indexed to retired pay. 10 U.S.C. 1076d(d)(3)(A) sets the TRS premium at "28 percent of the total monthly amount determined on an appropriate actuarial basis," and 10 U.S.C. 1076e(d)(3) sets the TRR premium at "the cost of coverage that the Secretary determines on an appropriate actuarial basis." Both follow the cost of care, so both rose faster than 3.6 percent.

A Guard or Reserve family on TRS pays $3,689.76 for the year in 2027; a gray-area retiree family on TRR pays $20,372.40. The Young Adult figures match the TRICARE Operations Manual (priced against a sponsor's basic pay here). All three premium plans follow TRICARE Select Group B deductibles and copayments regardless of when the sponsor joined. Drilling members can set the TRS premium against a weekend in the drill pay calculator.

What the 2027 Group B figures are worth to an active duty family, by rank

TRICARE prices are flat and basic pay is not. The rows below are an active duty family on TRICARE Select in Group B, which now covers most of the force, with 2026 basic pay from our own DFAS table. The deductible splits at E-4, the only place rank touches a TRICARE price directly.

A bad medical year now costs an E-3 family 3.79 percent of basic pay and an O-5 family 1.00 percent, against 3.66 and 0.97 on the 2026 cap. The 2027 pay raise, once enacted, will pull those shares back down a little; the basic pay tables carry the current rate for every grade and the RMC calculator shows where health care sits inside total compensation.

What the 2027 fees are worth to a retiree, by grade

No single table fits every retiree, so the rows below use a stand-in anyone can reproduce from our data: 50 percent of 2026 basic pay at the years shown, the multiplier a 20-year legacy High-3 retirement earns, before the December 2026 COLA. A real High-3 average is a little lower than final basic pay and the 3.6 percent adjustment lifts the 2027 payments, so the shares are approximate. The High-3 calculator runs your own numbers.

For a retired E-6 family in Group B, the Select enrollment fee alone is 3.9 percent of retired pay before a single visit, and a year that reaches the cap takes more than 15 percent. The same fee is 1.35 percent for a retired O-6. Group A retirees pay less than half: $388.92 for Select and $792.96 for Prime. A retirement budget built on the final pay or High-3 estimate should be read net of that fee.

What the November 5 article does not change

• Pharmacy copayments are unchanged for 2027, as the article repeats; 10 U.S.C. 1074g(a)(6)(A) fixes them through 2027 (the September guide walks the table).
• TRICARE For Life 2027 costs "will be posted early next year." The 2026 matrix stays on the comparison page until then (what turning 65 does to your coverage).
• TRICARE Dental Program premiums "will stay the same through Feb. 28, 2027" (the current TDP and FEDVIP figures).
• Continued Health Care Benefit Program premiums for 2027 are not in the article. The 2026 quarterly figures were $2,103.00 single and $5,339.00 family; we will not print a 2027 number until DHA does.

What to do before December 8

1. 1Confirm your group. Group A is a sponsor whose initial enlistment or appointment began before January 1, 2018; Group B is on or after. The cost comparison page sorts the tables by it.
2. 2Retirees, compare the fee against your use of care. Group B Prime costs $960.00 a year for a family with $27.00 primary care visits; Group B Select costs $1,233.96 plus a $411.00 deductible and $34.00 visits. For a family that gets its care inside the network as the plan directs, Prime is cheaper on both the fee and the visits.
3. 3Active duty families, nothing is required. Prime remains $0.00 and Select has no enrollment fee. If you stay put, your 2026 enrollment carries into 2027 at the new copayments.
4. 4Reserve families, check the allotment. The TRS family premium rises $20.82 a month on the January payment. A premium that stops is a coverage that stops; the LES Auditor catches a missing deduction on the pay side.

Pay figures are FY2026 basic pay from the DFAS table effective January 1, 2026, and TRICARE figures are the Defense Health Agency's published CY2027 amounts as of November 5, 2026. Always verify with your finance office before making financial decisions.