Fix TRICARE Overseas Select for Puerto Rico Military Families
Puerto Rico is home to tens of thousands of veterans, military retirees, spouses, children, survivors, and military families. We served the same nation, deployed under the same flag, endured the same family separations, and sacrificed the same as our brothers and sisters living in the mainland United States.

Our families earned the same healthcare promise.

That promise should not become harder to use because we returned home to Puerto Rico.

TRICARE places Puerto Rico under the TRICARE Overseas Region, with International SOS serving as the overseas contractor. For many retired service members and families on the island, TRICARE Select Overseas is the only practical TRICARE option. But in reality, the system often creates barriers through up-front payment requirements, confusing claims, vague denials, limited local support, unclear Puerto Rico-specific guidance, and a contractor process that many beneficiaries and local providers struggle to navigate.

This is not just one family’s complaint. This is a broader access problem affecting Puerto Rican military retirees and families who live on the island, as well as veterans who want to return home but fear losing practical access to reliable family healthcare.

Puerto Rico has approximately 70,000 veterans. Public statements from the Resident Commissioner’s office have also identified approximately 38,000 TRICARE beneficiaries in Puerto Rico, including around 24,000 military retirees and their family members. That means this is not a small administrative inconvenience. It is a public policy problem affecting thousands of military households.

Many families become so frustrated with TRICARE Overseas Select that they avoid using the benefit they earned and instead pay thousands of dollars per year for private healthcare coverage. Some families pay more than $6,000 annually for private insurance because the TRICARE Overseas process is too difficult, delayed, vague, or unreliable.

That should alarm Congress, the Defense Health Agency, the Department of Defense, and TRICARE leadership.

A military healthcare benefit that exists on paper but is too difficult, confusing, delayed, or unreliable to use is not functioning as promised.

Stateside military retirees in TRICARE Prime service areas often have access to more predictable costs, managed networks, and clearer claims support. Puerto Rico retirees and their families are pushed into an overseas contractor system that often requires beneficiaries to pay up front, chase documentation, decode vague denials, and navigate a claims process that many local providers and pharmacies are not built around.

We are not asking for special treatment.

We are asking for equal treatment.

We call on the Defense Health Agency, Department of Defense, TRICARE leadership, International SOS, the Senate Armed Services Committee, the House Armed Services Committee, and Resident Commissioner Pablo José Hernández to take action to fix TRICARE access for Puerto Rico military retirees and families.

We respectfully request:

Congressional and Defense Health Agency review of TRICARE Overseas Select performance in Puerto Rico.
Review of International SOS contractor performance, claims-processing delays, denial patterns, customer service quality, and grievance handling for Puerto Rico beneficiaries.
Clear, plain-language claim denial and reconsideration notices that identify the exact missing item, claim line, coding issue, pricing issue, or documentation problem.
Puerto Rico-specific TRICARE Overseas Select guidance for beneficiaries, providers, pharmacies, and claims processors.
Stronger local support through Fort Buchanan, Rodriguez Army Health Clinic, or another designated TRICARE beneficiary assistance channel for retirees and families in Puerto Rico.
Review of whether current TRICARE Overseas Select rules create unequal practical access for retirees and families living in U.S. territories.
A study of how many Puerto Rico military retirees and families avoid using TRICARE and instead purchase private healthcare because TRICARE Overseas Select is too difficult or unreliable to use.
Published performance standards for International SOS and DHA regarding Puerto Rico claims, appeals, reimbursements, grievances, and beneficiary assistance.
Legislative or policy changes to provide Puerto Rico military retirees and families access to a more reliable TRICARE option comparable to stateside retiree coverage.
Assurance that military retirees and families in Puerto Rico are not treated as an administrative afterthought within the TRICARE system.
Veterans from Puerto Rico fought and sacrificed the same as veterans from the mainland. Our spouses and children sacrificed as well. Returning home should not mean accepting second-class access to earned healthcare.

No veteran’s family should be left behind because of geography, contractor failure, or bureaucratic neglect.

Fix TRICARE access for Puerto Rico military retirees and families.