Is it ever more advantages to get medical seperation over medical retirement?
Med Sep vs Med Retirement
- Thread starter OUSooner
- Start date
Medical retirement is far more advantageous than medical separation. With medical separation, army will recoup its separation pay from VA disability payment but with medical retirement, you get the same benefit as 20+ years retiree I.e TRICARE for life, access to post commissary, PX etc.
It depends on your financial situation. Check out @Jeffrey11 's post. http://pebforum.com/site/threads/finally-received-my-findings.35629/#post-168581
The only other advantage I can think of is that retirees are still subject to the UCMJ (mainly if you commit an extreme, heinous crime) but still. :/
That's just it I was just doing the math today after talking to my VA Rep.
For example if someone was retired as a E7 they get half their base pay of 4320.80 which is 2160.40. Then you have to take taxes from retirement pay which I estimate at 20% to be conservative. That leaves you with 1728.32.
Now if you are 80% VA with a spouse you will get roughly 1775.00 with no tax. I understand the lifetime health care with the VA vs Tricare but also if you get medical Sep let's say at E7 and 18 years that is 155,548.80. Let's say you then pay the max back to VA of 20% they take 345.0. Let's say you use that 155k on a house and live off the residual payments of 1500.00 after the VA takes their cut.
If your retired you don't key the 155k and let's say you pay on a house your mtg payment is 1200.00 that leaves you with only 500 a month to spend.
For example if someone was retired as a E7 they get half their base pay of 4320.80 which is 2160.40. Then you have to take taxes from retirement pay which I estimate at 20% to be conservative. That leaves you with 1728.32.
Now if you are 80% VA with a spouse you will get roughly 1775.00 with no tax. I understand the lifetime health care with the VA vs Tricare but also if you get medical Sep let's say at E7 and 18 years that is 155,548.80. Let's say you then pay the max back to VA of 20% they take 345.0. Let's say you use that 155k on a house and live off the residual payments of 1500.00 after the VA takes their cut.
If your retired you don't key the 155k and let's say you pay on a house your mtg payment is 1200.00 that leaves you with only 500 a month to spend.
You can also lose VA benefits for certain crimes. Just like you can't get benefits with dishonorable discharges. You still have to be of strong moral character.
That being said you do need to consider long and hard of committing to a lifetime of healthcare through the VA. I spent 13 years fighting to get my medical retirement so I could finally be free of the awful care at the VA. So the tricare made it the richest investment for me personally.
I also paid back more than 20%, from what I remember, of my severance pay. But that has also been more than a decade ago. So I may be remembering wrong, or they may have changed the rules since then.
Good luck on finding the best solution for you!!
That being said you do need to consider long and hard of committing to a lifetime of healthcare through the VA. I spent 13 years fighting to get my medical retirement so I could finally be free of the awful care at the VA. So the tricare made it the richest investment for me personally.
I also paid back more than 20%, from what I remember, of my severance pay. But that has also been more than a decade ago. So I may be remembering wrong, or they may have changed the rules since then.
Good luck on finding the best solution for you!!
I agree I was just having a conversation and this question peaked my interest.