TRICARE does not buy your glasses. BENEFEDS does.

Soldiers treat vision like a TRICARE sidebar. It is not. Routine exams, frames, and contacts sit in the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program — FEDVIP — purchased on BENEFEDS.gov. If you never open that portal, you are paying civilian prices for glasses while a discounted plan sits unused.

Eligibility is status, not rank. Selected Reserve and National Guard members who are enrolled in a TRICARE health plan can buy FEDVIP vision. They generally cannot buy FEDVIP dental — that is the TRICARE Dental Program. Active-duty members are locked out; their families may enroll in vision if they are on TRICARE. Retirees and gray-area Reservists have a wider door.

The click path

BENEFEDS.gov → My BENEFEDS via Login.gov → answer the uniformed-service eligibility questions → enroll in vision → Self, Self + One, or Self & Family → confirm the premium. Do not invent a milConnect shortcut. There is not one.

Open Season is the Monday of the second full work week in November through the Monday of the second full work week in December, coverage 1 January. Newly eligible people get 60 days. Confirm the calendar on BENEFEDS, not a screenshot in a group chat. TOP walked the portal on camera so you can pause it on the same screen.