Q. When I married a federal retiree, she changed her health benefits and life insurance coverage to include me. While she planned to elect a survivor benefit for me, she didn’t. I only learned that when I reported her death and applied for a survivor annuity. Now OPM has told me that I’m not entitled to a survivor annuity and as a result am not entitled to coverage under the health benefit program. Is that right?
A. Yes, it is. Because you didn’t marry her until after she had retired, she wasn’t required to provide you with a survivor annuity. Since she didn’t elect to do that and have her own annuity reduced to pay for that benefit, you aren’t eligible for a survivor annuity. Unfortunately, that also means that you aren’t eligible to continue your coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefits program.
2 Comments
Me and my spouse are retired from federal I was on his federal health insurance he died with no survival annuity he had self plus one sense I am Federal Retiree myself can i get self only health insurance I sent form 2809 and 2810 to OPM but have not anything back I also tried to e-mail them no answer back
If you were covered by his FEHB enrollment when he died, you are entitled to continue that coverage and have the premiums deducted from your annuity.