New SALUTE Act Offers Military Families Optional Cancer Coverage, But You Pay the Premiums

The Supporting Americas Leaders Undergoing Tough Expenses Act, or the SALUTE Act, is setting up a new pilot program designed to help active-duty military personnel and their families enrolled in TRICARE deal with the crushing costs of cancer. Starting no later than September 30, 2026, this program will allow these families to buy supplemental insurance to cover cancer-related expenses—things like screening, diagnosis, and treatment—that aren’t fully covered by their standard TRICARE benefits. The Department of Defense (DoD) will contract with up to two private insurance companies for at least three years to offer these separate, voluntary policies.

The Fine Print on Supplemental Coverage

Think of this as an extra layer of financial protection for a worst-case scenario. The bill explicitly defines a "noncovered expense" as any cost related to cancer care not already paid for by TRICARE. The DoD is required to negotiate these supplemental plans with private insurers, making sure they are separate policies that cannot coordinate benefits with any other existing health plan. This non-coordination rule is a key detail: it means the new policy pays out based on its own terms, separate from what TRICARE covers, which simplifies the process but could also create confusion about where one policy ends and the other begins.

For military families, the big takeaway is convenience and cost. The DoD must set up a payroll deduction system to make paying the premiums easy, but here’s the crucial part: participants pay the full cost of the premiums. The government isn’t subsidizing this insurance. If you’re a service member or dependent, this means assessing whether the potential peace of mind is worth the mandatory monthly out-of-pocket expense for the premium. The DoD also has to negotiate whether the selected insurance companies can market other products to the enrolled families—a provision that could open the door to aggressive cross-selling.

Who Benefits and What Happens Next?

This benefit is strictly for active members of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, or Space Force, and their dependents enrolled in TRICARE. It’s a voluntary program, so you don’t have to enroll if you don’t want to. The bill also contains a powerful provision that overrides most state laws regarding insurance, except for those dealing with licensing and financial stability (solvency) of the insurance companies themselves. This ensures the plans can be offered uniformly across the country, regardless of where the military family is stationed.

Three years after the pilot launches, the Secretary of Defense must report back to Congress with data on enrollment, costs, and how people used the benefits. This report will include a recommendation on whether the program should become permanent. If the Secretary decides against making it permanent, the entire program automatically sunsets five years after the SALUTE Act is enacted. For busy military families, this bill offers a tangible way to mitigate the financial risk of a cancer diagnosis, but it requires carefully weighing the premium cost against the potential benefit of covering those unexpected, non-TRICARE expenses.