Michigan National Guard TRICARE Premium Reimbursement

The TRICARE premium reimbursement program act, 2025 PA 36, took immediate effect on December 9, 2025. It addresses a specific gap: a Guard member who is not on active duty pays a monthly premium for TRICARE Reserve Select, and unlike a federal activation that premium comes out of a civilian pay packet. What is reimbursed. A premium paid for individual coverage through the TRICARE Reserve Select program, or individual coverage under the TRICARE Dental program, or both. Who is eligible. A member of the Michigan National Guard who is eligible for coverage under the TRICARE Reserve Select program or the TRICARE Dental program and meets any other eligibility criteria established by the department. The statute names no rating, discharge or length of service test; it turns entirely on being a serving Guard member with the federal coverage. The word "individual" matters. Both limbs of 32.473(1) say individual coverage. TRICARE Reserve Select is also sold as member-and-family cover at a considerably higher premium, and on the face of the section only the individual premium is named. A member covering a family should expect the reimbursement to be measured against the individual rate. What it is paid from, and the condition on that. The department shall make reimbursements "if there is sufficient money in the fund to cover the reimbursements". The fund is the Michigan National Guard member benefit fund created by 2025 PA 31 on the same day, which also carries the Guard child care assistance program and the reimbursement half of the tuition assistance program, and which received the unencumbered balance of the tuition assistance fund at the end of the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025. Three programs now draw on one pot, and none of them is an entitlement independent of it. How to apply. An application on a form determined by the department, which must publish the form and the instructions for completing and submitting it on its website. The department shall promulgate rules to implement the act under the Administrative Procedures Act, and the detail of what counts as a reimbursable premium and over what period will sit in those rules rather than in the statute. Because the act is new, a member should expect the operating details to be in departmental policy rather than in the section, and should check the current departmental page rather than rely on a summary.