By If you’re a military personnel, or you’re trying to enroll in the military, it’s important you understand the insurance cover available to you and your family. This will enable you to make the needed plans in the event of any deployment or casualty.
There is some insurance coverage available to military personnel and their families in the US. From the popular TRICARE health insurance to the Servicemembers Group Life Insurance (SGLI), you and your family have a lot to benefit from the US government.
In addition to that, several insurance companies have awesome packages for military personnel and their families. These packages are available with discounts and special premiums tailored for active servicemen, veterans, and their families.
In the next five minutes, we’ll be discussing the different insurance coverages and benefits available to military personnel and their families.
4 Insurance Covers for Military Personnel
Table of Contents
Life Insurance
Life insurance is one of the benefits you’ll enjoy as a service member. This is put up to ensure the family members of servicemen have something to hold onto upon the demise of their loved one.
The Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) is a low-cost life insurance program for active duty military members. The program is available in the standard form, which is the coverage for active duty members, and other extensions. The extensions capture retirement from active duty, disabilities got while on duty, and coverage for the dependents of an active duty military member.
Here are the different life insurance policies available to military personnel and their families in the US:
Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI)
The SGLI will be signed up for you immediately after you enlist in the military. It has a maximum life insurance coverage of $400,000. This coverage comes with a monthly premium of $24, and it’s charged from your account.
You have the option to adjust the coverage or opt-out at any time. Upon enlisting, you’d be required to provide a beneficiary for your life insurance coverage.
Family Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (FSGLI)
Your family members are not left out of the SGLI coverage. As an active duty member of the military who has SGLI coverage, you can enroll your spouse and dependent children in the FSGLI program.
Your spouse has a coverage limit of $100,000, and their age determines the premium you’d pay. Your dependent children will get coverage of $10,000 each with no premium cost.
Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance-Disability Extension (SGLI-DE)
The SGLI-DE is available to all servicemen who leave the military at any point because of a disability. However, you’d have to be under SGLI coverage at the time of leaving the military. If your SGLI-DE is approved, you’ll be able to keep your SGLI coverage at no premium cost for two years from the date you left the military.
Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance Traumatic Injury Protection (TSGLI)
If you incur a traumatic injury while in service and you’re still under the SGLI coverage, you’ll be eligible for the TSGLI coverage. This coverage has a maximum limit of $100,000, which takes care of your loss of income, temporary housing, and travel costs.
Veterans’ Group Life Insurance (VGLI)
The Veterans’ Group Life Insurance (VGLI) is available to you shortly after you’ve left active duty. If you decide to replace your SGLI coverage with the VGLI, you should know that there are also different variants of the VGLI. There’s the standard VGLI, the Veterans’ Mortgage Life Insurance (VMLI), the Service-Disabled Veterans Insurance (S-DVI) and the Supplemental Service-Disabled Veterans’ Insurance (Supplemental S-DVI).
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Home Insurance
As an active duty military personnel, it feels safe to have a homeowner’s insurance coverage on your home. There are many homeowners insurance companies that offer fantastic home insurance packages tailored for military personnel. Though most of these packages only cover your home while you’re around, you can still review or preferably look for companies that offer insurance to deployed military personnel. This is to ensure that while you’re away, your home will be safe.
As a military person, you have three home insurance options available to you. It is safe to talk them over with your insurer to find the plan that suits you best.
The first one is the dwelling coverage, which covers only your home structure. If the home gets damaged or completely destroyed, you can get settled. The second is personal property coverage. This package covers your personal belongings and every other important property in your home. Lastly, the third one is liability insurance, which protects you from third-party insurance claims. When a third party who isn’t part of the insurance agreement files a lawsuit against you for injuries and damages incurred in your home, the insurer stands to defend you.
Companies like Farmers, Liberty Mutual, Kemper Insurance, and USAA have awesome home insurance packages and discounts for military personnel and their families.
Health Insurance
The health insurance plan available to active duty military members, their families, and veterans is known as TRICARE. TRICARE is available to you in different forms, depending on your location and status. The Military Health System (MHS) ensures the TRICARE program is available globally to every active duty military member, their spouse, and dependents.
This package is made available via different military hospitals and clinics, a civilian network of providers or TRICARE-authorized non-network providers.
These are the different TRICARE plans available:
- TRICARE Plus
- TRICARE Prime
- TRICARE Prime Remote
- TRICARE Prime Overseas
- TRICARE Select
- TRICARE Select Overseas
- TRICARE For Life
- TRICARE Reserve Select
- TRICARE Retired Reserve
- TRICARE Young Adult
- US Family Health Plan
Those eligible for the TRICARE plans are:
- Active duty service members and families
- National Guard/Reserve members and families
- Retired service members and their families
- Retired Reserve members and their families
- Survivors
- Children of military personnel
- Former spouses
- Medal of Honor Recipients and families
- Dependent parents and parent-in-law
- Foreign Force members and families
If you’re eligible, go through the plans to find the ones that suit you best.
Car Insurance
Many car insurance companies have special auto coverage and discounts for active duty military personnel and veterans.
Some auto insurance companies offer only standard auto coverage to military men, which take care of their cars while they’re still using them. There are insurers who offer extensive auto deals and discounts to military personnel to cover their vehicles while they’re out on deployment.
Companies like USAA, GEICO, and Liberty Mutual are the top auto insurance providers for active duty military members and veterans. USAA, for instance, only provides its insurance services to military members or those with military affiliations.
While on deployment, some insurance companies can reduce the premium you pay on your stored vehicles. You can also decide to move your vehicle to your place of deployment.
Conclusion
Though the US government has insurance and benefit programs for its military personnel and their families, there are insurance companies that have military-tailored programs. They believe it is their duty to protect those who do their best to protect the nation.
These insurance companies offer policies with lots of discounts and opportunities for military personnel. You can take advantage of these opportunities to cover yourself and your family, especially in cases where the government packages do not include your family.
I hope you’ve learned from this article all you need to know about insurance coverage for military personnel and their families in the US.
You might also want to read: Top 7 Important Insurance Types a New Business Owner Should Consider and 5 Business Risks that Require Adequate Insurance Coverage
