🎖️ Military Community

Tools and advocacy for those who served

From TRICARE claim assistance to Medicare reform advocacy — practical resources built by a military retiree for the military community.

Featured Initiative

File My Claim™

Filing a TRICARE medical claim shouldn't feel like a second job. File My Claim walks you through every step — and it's built for real people, not bureaucrats.

The manual process
60+ minutes of searching and guessing
Re-entering the same data repeatedly
Incomplete billing and provider data
High risk of rejection or delay
No guidance on what goes where
File My Claim™
Under 1 minute start to finish
Named profiles — enter once, reuse always
Correct DD Form 2642 — September 2024
One submission-ready claim package
Claim dashboard with calendar integration
Open File My Claim™ →
No cost · Early access · No account required · Your data never leaves your device · Not affiliated with TRICARE or the Defense Health Agency

DD Form 2642

Fills in the official September 2024 DD Form 2642 with your data — ready to sign and submit.

Claim Dashboard

Track every submission — date filed, amount claimed, TRICARE reimbursement, status. Calendar integration with one click.

Named Profiles

Create a profile for each covered family member. Shared data auto-fills. Patient-specific details stay unique per person.

Legislative Initiative

The Healthcare Savings & Equity Initiative

About 6 million Americans live overseas — including military retirees and their families — and many pay full Medicare Part B premiums for coverage they cannot use abroad, solely to avoid a permanent late-enrollment penalty if they return to the U.S. This initiative backs American Citizens Abroad's Medicare Equity and Savings proposal to fix that.

What the proposal supports

  • →Pillar 1 — Voluntary Suspension: any Medicare-eligible American living overseas more than 180 days a year could suspend Part B without penalty, on proof of creditable coverage
  • →Pillar 2 — Special Enrollment Period: a guaranteed 90-day window to re-enroll penalty-free on return to the U.S., modeled on the existing Peace Corps provision — a pause, not a withdrawal
  • →Pillar 3 — Treasury Savings: an estimated $3.65 billion saved per year — savings recapture, not new spending
  • →The Retiree Choice Provision: military retirees on TRICARE For Life would be exempt from the Part B mandate, with the option of TRICARE Select Overseas instead (~$300–$400/yr) for full local civilian coverage

Why it matters

  • →Medicare Part B costs $2,435–$8,279/yr (2026 rates) for coverage with no provider network abroad and no reimbursement for care received overseas
  • →Stopping or skipping Part B triggers a permanent 10% late-enrollment penalty per year unpaid — compounding to 50–100% for those who wait years to re-enroll
  • →The Treasury subsidizes about 75% of every premium — roughly $7,295/yr per person — for a benefit that delivers zero service abroad
  • →Surviving military spouses and foreign-born spouses of U.S. citizens face the same enrollment obligations, often on a fixed income, with no matching benefit overseas
Take action — script for calling your representative:
"I'm a U.S. citizen living abroad, and a military retiree. I'm required to pay Medicare Part B premiums for coverage I can't use overseas, and I risk a permanent penalty if I ever return home. I support American Citizens Abroad's Medicare Equity and Savings proposal — a voluntary suspension option with a guaranteed re-enrollment window, and for military retirees, a real choice between TRICARE For Life and TRICARE Select Overseas. Could I speak with your health-policy staffer for 15 minutes?"

Go deeper — read the source

American Citizens Abroad's official Medicare Equity and Savings proposal — the full Three-Pillar framework, the Retiree Choice Provision for military retirees, and the Treasury savings estimate — is available directly from ACA.

Read the Proposal on ACA's Website → Download the Official PDF →

Contact your representatives

Find Your Member → U.S. House → U.S. Senate → Americans Citizens Abroad →

American Citizens Abroad credited Fortify Community's founder, Gregory P. Simon, USAF (Ret.), for his contribution to this proposal.

Policy Proposal

The Military Dependent Initiative

U.S. military dependents in Italy still need a physical Permesso di Soggiorno from the local Questura — a purely clerical process that pulls Air Force personnel and buses away from mission-essential work every week, and adds to an already-saturated immigration queue in the Province of Pordenone. Known as the SOFA-ID Initiative, this proposal lays out three paths to fix it.

The problem

  • → Every week, the 31st Fighter Wing dedicates security personnel, buses, and hundreds of man-hours to shuttle dependents to the Pordenone Questura for a purely clerical task
  • → The Questura is already handling record immigration volume — refugees, seasonal workers, and residents — and this adds thousands of pre-vetted cases to the same queue
  • → Dependents already hold a Missione Visa issued by the Italian Embassy in the U.S. — the Questura is largely re-verifying data Italy has already approved

Three paths forward

  • →Path 1 — a Ministero dell'Interno circolare tying permits to the sponsor's tour length: the fastest option, but the easiest to reverse
  • →Path 2 — adding NATO SOFA dependents to Article 27 of Italy's immigration code: an Italian-only legislative fix, no treaty required
  • →Path 3 — a NATO SOFA supplement modeled on Germany's own agreement: full exemption from alien registration, the slowest but most durable option
Status: This is a collaborative working draft, open to input from Italian officials and other NATO installations. It does not represent official U.S. or Italian government policy.

Go deeper

The full proposal lays out all three paths in detail — the legal basis each rests on, how each would work in practice, and who is positioned to act on it, from the Questura di Pordenone up to the NATO SOFA Joint Committee.

Read the Full Proposal →