TRICARE Open Season for 2027 coverage runs from Monday, November 9, to Tuesday, December 8, 2026. It is the one window each year when most families and retirees can enroll in a TRICARE health plan, switch plans, or change who is covered without a qualifying life event. Anything you choose takes effect January 1, 2027.
Federal dental and vision coverage through FEDVIP has its own open season over the same weeks, from November 9 to December 7.
Who should look at it
- Active-duty family members can move between TRICARE Prime and TRICARE Select. Prime costs nothing for active-duty families but sends you through a primary care manager. Select lets you see any authorized provider without a referral, with copays and a yearly deductible.
- Retirees under 65 and their families can switch between Prime and Select, enroll if they dropped coverage, or add and remove family members. Retiree plans carry an enrollment fee, so it is worth checking whether the plan you have is still the best value.
- Reserve and Guard families on a TRICARE premium plan are not covered by Open Season. Those plans can be bought or dropped at any time.
Active-duty members themselves do not choose. They are always enrolled in TRICARE Prime or TRICARE Prime Remote.
Who it does not apply to
TRICARE For Life, the coverage for Medicare-eligible retirees, has no open season. Medicare’s own open enrollment runs from October 15 to December 7, and that is where those retirees change drug or Medicare Advantage plans.
The TRICARE Dental Program for active-duty families is also outside Open Season. You can enroll in it at any time.
Dental and vision through FEDVIP
Retirees and their families get dental coverage through FEDVIP, not TRICARE. FEDVIP vision plans are open to retirees and to active-duty family members enrolled in a TRICARE health plan. During the FEDVIP open season you can enroll, change plans or cancel. Premiums for 2027 are published before the window opens, and they are paid by allotment from retired pay or by bank draft.
If you miss it
If you do nothing, your current plan carries over into 2027. Outside the window, you can only change your enrollment within 90 days of a qualifying life event, such as marriage, the birth or adoption of a child, a move, retirement or a change in sponsor status.
Check the cost against your pay
For retirees, the TRICARE enrollment fee and any FEDVIP premium come out of retired pay. Our retirement pay calculator shows the monthly amount before those deductions, and our paycheck calculator shows what lands in the bank for active-duty members.