The 20/20/20 Rule: Keeping TRICARE After a Military Divorce

Military Divorce · Virginia

Will You Lose TRICARE After Divorce? Understanding the 20/20/20 Rule

By Corrie Sirkin, Esq. · Founding Partner

When a long military marriage ends, the question that keeps a spouse up at night is often not about money at all. It is about health coverage. After twenty years of moving, raising kids, and holding the home front together, the thought of losing TRICARE feels like losing the floor under your feet. There is a federal rule built for exactly this situation, and it can preserve that coverage for life.

The three twenties, one at a time

The name comes from three separate twenty-year tests, and all three must be met. First, the marriage lasted at least twenty years. Second, the servicemember has at least twenty years of creditable service that counts toward retirement. Third, and this is the one people forget, the marriage and the service overlapped for at least twenty years.

That third test is where many spouses fall short by a year or two. A marriage can clear twenty years, and the service can clear twenty years, but if the wedding came after the service began, the overlap can land at eighteen or nineteen. The rule is strict. Close does not qualify.

What the rule preserves

When all three twenties line up, the former spouse keeps TRICARE in their own right, along with access to the commissary, the grocery on base, and the exchange, the base retail store. This is full coverage, not a temporary bridge. For a spouse who built a life around military medicine, that continuity is enormous.

There is a narrower cousin called the 20/20/15 rule, where the overlap is at least fifteen years rather than twenty. That one provides transitional TRICARE for a limited time, usually one year, rather than lasting coverage. It is a softer landing, not a permanent benefit.

What ends the coverage

Two things commonly end 20/20/20 benefits. Remarriage by the former spouse generally terminates them. And enrolling in an employer's health plan can suspend TRICARE eligibility while that other coverage is in place. Knowing this ahead of time lets a spouse plan the timing of a new job or a new marriage with eyes open. For the wider web of benefits in a service divorce, see our military divorce page, and for how the divorce itself proceeds in Virginia, our divorce practice page.

"After twenty years of military life, losing TRICARE feels like losing the floor. The 20/20/20 rule is the floor."

Corrie Sirkin, Esq. Founding Partner

Honest counsel: count the overlap before you count on the benefit

I always run the three twenties on a calendar before a client builds a plan around TRICARE, because the overlap test trips up good people who assumed they qualified. If you land just short, we look at whether the 20/20/15 transitional coverage applies, and we factor the cost of replacement insurance into the support and property negotiation. Health coverage is not a side issue in a long military marriage. It is a number with real dollars behind it, and it belongs on the table from the first conversation.

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