Stoneleigh Fellow Meredith Matone, Stoneleigh Board Member David Rubin, and their colleagues recently published a study finding that military families with TRICARE coverage report having lower quality and access to health care than their civilian peers.
Military families covered by TRICARE, the health care program for uniformed service members and their families, report lower access to care and satisfaction with the quality of care than civilian families who have private or public coverage for their kids, according to a new study in the August issue of Health Affairs.
Using a national data set from 2007-2015, researchers analyzed families’ reported experiences with TRICARE coverage for nearly 85,000 youth ages 0-17. They found that TRICARE-covered families were less likely than families with private insurance to report accessible care (35% vs. 50%) or responsive care (47% vs. 54%) for their children. Accessibility of care for children with TRICARE was comparable to that of uninsured children or those covered by Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
