Browsing: Open season

Q. I retired in 2010, and my Federal Employees Health Benefits premiums have gone up. This year, it increased almost 30 percent. The cost is about one-quarter of my monthly income. I can’t afford this. My problem is, I guess that I will have to leave FEHB for the Affordable Care Act. And I will never be able to get it back. Why do retirees on FEHB have such a high premium? Our income doesn’t go up 30 percent to cover the difference. Any suggestions?

Q. I retired from the Postal Service in October 2008. My wife is now getting Medicare. Can I remove her from my insurance and only claim myself as a single? I also would like to know what I’m paying for my family coverage now and what I would pay if I claim as a single. Can you advise me on how to go about or whom to contact?

Q. If the current government shutdown extends beyond the Nov. 11-Dec. 9 Federal Employees Health Benefits open season, will the open season be extended?  I am not alone in having to elect changes due to insurers exiting the FEHB market next year. How will health benefits continue into the new year if the shutdown lasts that long and one’s current health provider is no longer providing coverage?

Q. My wife wants to retire from the Postal Service, under FERS, with 30 years service but she’ll only be 50. Am I correct in understanding that she will be eligible for a deferred retirement at her minimum retirement age of 56 without any reduction to her annuity? What about the special retirement supplement? I’m assuming she won’t be eligible for that. She’s been on my Federal Employees Health Benefits plan for the past 25 years. I’m also a postal worker. So can she get her own individual plan, or must she stay on my family plan? I was told…

Q. If I’m under my wife’s health plan (she is also a federal employee), and she retires and keeps the same plan, once our dependent is no longer in the plan, we are thinking of changing to self-only. We will both be retired by then. Can I then enroll in self, although at retirement I was under her? Or do I need to be in my wife’s health plan forever since at retirement I was under her?

Q. As a federal worker, I am carrying a family plan for health insurance. My child ages out this year. I am eligible to retire next year. My spouse is eligible for his own plan at a private company, but it will not follow him into retirement. We would save money carrying two self-only plans. If I switch to a self-only plan and then retire, will I be able to switch back to a family plan when spouse retires in seven years?

Q. I carry a family plan in my name. My spouse also works for the federal government but has no health insurance since she is under my plan. We still have two adult children on my plan; one is 21, the other is 25. When my spouse and I retire, we would like to both carry our own individual health plans as that would seem less expensive, and my two children will be 26 or older. So, must my wife get her own plan this upcoming open season, even though she is covered under my plan to do this in…

Q. Our family is covered under my retired husband’s Federal Employees Health Benefits plan. I have a health plan available through my work (but am not enrolled in the plan), but will not have that option available upon my retirement. Under the Affordable Care Act, will I lose my eligibility to my husband’s FEHB?  Would I be eligible again for FEHB if I no longer have access through my employment (unemployed or retired)?

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