As a Soldier who was lucky to be on Tricare Remote...

As a Soldier who was lucky to be on Tricare Remote for ten years seeing civilian Doctors all over the country, I was scared to death to have to see military health practitioners again. Think of the customer service at the DMV or IRS and add medicine to it and that is what it was like. But things seem to have improved a little. The only services that are worth their weight is Behavior Health. Pharmacy is OK too. But vision is always a 30 day wait or more if you can get an appointment at all. Radiology has the typical government employee who is usually acts if they do not like white patients and are rude. If you are lucky to get an appointment, you will never see a doctor, it will always be a Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistant and they will always (correctly) fish you to a specialist at Walter Reed. To see a Chiropractor, be prepared to wait 2 months in back pain or on meds or drive to Virginia to an AFB to get care.

I have yet to find out why they do not privatize the entire military system, open up choice including other clinics etc. With government unions and waste, I bet it would be actually cheaper to outsource. Some would say, what about the military doctors and nurses etc.? Make them all reserves with massive call up bonuses as needed in times of war and deployment.