Subchapter VII. Further Relief
50 U.S.C. § 4024: Getting Your Health Insurance Back After Service
Official heading: Health insurance reinstatement
In one line
Entitles you to reinstate health insurance you had before service and lost during it, with no exclusion or waiting period for conditions that arose before or during service, at a premium no higher than before.
- Apply within 120 days after termination of or release from military service
- Does not apply if you are entitled to employer-offered coverage under chapter 43 of title 38 (USERRA)
- The premium is capped at the pre-termination amount for the balance of the coverage period, except general increases
Text checked October 9, 2026
What § 4024 does to your money
If your private health plan ended because you were called to active duty, § 4024 gets it back. It applies to a servicemember whose service is the reserve call-up described in § 4023(a)(1), and it covers health insurance that was in effect the day before service began and was terminated during service. Apply no later than 120 days after release from service.
The reinstated coverage cannot carry an exclusion or a waiting period for a condition that arose before or during service, for you or for family members covered through you, if no exclusion would have applied had coverage continued. The carve-out is your own condition that the VA has determined to be a disability incurred or aggravated in the line of duty.
Premiums cannot rise above what you paid before the termination for the rest of the period the coverage would have run, except for general increases the carrier applied to everyone with the same coverage. If you were entitled to employer-offered coverage under USERRA (38 U.S.C. chapter 43), this section does not apply and USERRA governs the reinstatement.
Guides on this site that apply § 4024
- SCRA Health Insurance Reinstatement After Service
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- SCRA Eligibility: Who Qualifies, When It Starts & Ends
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- What Is the SCRA? The Military Law Worth Thousands a Year
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The full text of 50 U.S.C. § 4024
From the United States Code, 2024 Edition, current through January 6, 2025, as published by the U.S. Government Publishing Office on GovInfo (retrieved October 10, 2026). No amendment enacted after the edition cutoff was found on Cornell LII or in GovInfo’s compiled SCRA (amended through Pub. L. 118-159, Dec. 23, 2024). House style: the Code’s em dashes before a list are shown as colons, and en dashes as hyphens or “to”; no word of the text is changed.
(a) Reinstatement of health insurance
A servicemember who, by reason of military service as defined in section 4023(a)(1) of this title, is entitled to the rights and protections of this chapter shall also be entitled upon termination or release from such service to reinstatement of any health insurance that:
(1) was in effect on the day before such service commenced; and
(2) was terminated effective on a date during the period of such service.
(b) No exclusion or waiting period
The reinstatement of health care insurance coverage for the health or physical condition of a servicemember described in subsection (a), or any other person who is covered by the insurance by reason of the coverage of the servicemember, shall not be subject to an exclusion or a waiting period, if:
(1) the condition arose before or during the period of such service;
(2) an exclusion or a waiting period would not have been imposed for the condition during the period of coverage; and
(3) in a case in which the condition relates to the servicemember, the condition has not been determined by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to be a disability incurred or aggravated in the line of duty (within the meaning of section 105 of title 38).
(c) Exceptions
Subsection (a) does not apply to a servicemember entitled to participate in employer-offered insurance benefits pursuant to the provisions of chapter 43 of title 38.
(d) Time for applying for reinstatement
An application under this section must be filed not later than 120 days after the date of the termination of or release from military service.
(e) Limitation on premium increases
(1) Premium protection
The amount of the premium for health insurance coverage that was terminated by a servicemember and required to be reinstated under subsection (a) may not be increased, for the balance of the period for which coverage would have been continued had the coverage not been terminated, to an amount greater than the amount chargeable for such coverage before the termination.
(2) Increases of general applicability not precluded
Paragraph (1) does not prevent an increase in premium to the extent of any general increase in the premiums charged by the carrier of the health care insurance for the same health insurance coverage for persons similarly covered by such insurance during the period between the termination and the reinstatement.
Enacted and amended by: (Oct. 17, 1940, ch. 888, title VII, §704, as added Pub. L. 108-189, §1, Dec. 19, 2003, 117 Stat. 2864; amended Pub. L. 109-233, title III, §302, June 15, 2006, 120 Stat. 406.)
What changed, and when
The Office of the Law Revision Counsel’s amendment notes for § 4024, newest first.
- 2006: Subsec. (b)(3). Pub. L. 109-233, §302(b), substituted "in a case in which the" for "if the". Subsec. (e). Pub. L. 109-233, §302(a), added subsec. (e).
Effective date: Section applicable to any case not final before Dec. 19, 2003, see section 3 of Pub. L. 108-189, set out as a note under section 3901 of this title.
Every section of the Act, including the short administrative ones without their own page, is on the section-by-section index.
Heads up: SCRA Saver publishes general information, not legal or financial advice. Laws change and every situation differs. Confirm details with your installation legal assistance office (free for service members) or a licensed professional.