Q: I am retiring at the end of December and have already reached age 65. I have signed up for Social Security benefits starting in January. I also signed up for Medicare Part A coverage but not Part B coverage, as suggested at a retirement seminar. I am carrying over my Federal Employees Health Benefits coverage. I checked with my plan and they said I would not need Medicare Part B. If I decide to switch plans in the future and my new insurer suggests that I need Part B coverage, will I be penalized with the 10 percent per…
Browsing: Federal Employees Health Benefits
Q: I am 53 years old and have 36 years of federal service. One catch: I don’t have the five years of coverage under a Federal Employees Health Benefit plan (I’m still four years short). If my office offers early out through downsizing or restructuring, approved by the Office of Personnel Management, can I retire and carry my health benefits into retirement, even though I don’t have five years of coverage? A: Yes, you would be eligible to carry your coverage into retirement because you would have been enrolled in the program at the time your agency received approval from…
Q: I am a Civil Service Retirement System annuitant who will turn 65 soon. I have a Federal Employees Health Benefits plan. Must I sign up for Medicare Part B and/or Part D? What are the consequences if I don’t? Will my FEHB plan continue to cover my health care costs if I don’t sign up for Medicare? I have signed up for Part A because I paid for it over my working career. A: No, you don’t have to sign up for Medicare Part B or Part D. Whether you should is a decision you’ll have to make. Your…
Q: My wife and I are both federal employees. We each have had individual coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefits plan since we began working for the government. We both plan on retiring next year. She will be 61 and have 26 years of service; I will be 58 and have 20 years of service. I will postpone my retirement until age 60 to avoid the penalty. We plan on converting to a family plan this open season (2010) so that I am covered during those two years of my postponement. Is this the correct way to guarantee that…
Q: I retired from the U.S. Postal Service in 2000 after being divorced in 1997. I gave my ex-wife 100 percent survivor benefits; she recently turned 55. I remarried in 2004 and sent the proper forms needed to add my current wife to my Federal Employees Health Benefits plan. I now have the American Postal Workers Union (472) plan, and I assumed that if I died, my present wife would be able to keep the plan. After talking with the Office of Personnel Management, I was told that I need to have my present wife named as survivor beneficiary for…
Q: I have more than 30 years of employment with the federal government and plan to retire under the Civil Service Retirement System in about three years, at which point I will elect survivor benefits. For the past five years, I’ve elected a family Federal Employees Health Benefits plan to include my wife. My wife has more than three years of employment with the federal government and plans to retire under the Federal Employees Retirement System in about four years. We are both thinking about switching from family coverage to self-only coverage. If my wife retires with self-only coverage after…
Q: I am a retired federal employee and currently have health care coverage under one of the Federal Employee Health Benefits plans. I recently found out that I have multiple myeloma. I am also a Vietnam veteran, and after learning of my diagnosis, I found out that any Vietnam veteran who served on the ground in Vietnam between 1962 and 1975 and later developed certain diseases, including multiple myeloma, is presumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange herbicide and would be entitled to free health care for those diseases through the Veterans Affairs Department health care system. However, much…
Q: My father retired from the Internal Revenue Service 20 years ago. He has Medicare Part A but did not take Medicare Part B and has continued his Federal Employees Health Benefits insurance plan. Until now, all bills had been covered by his Aetna FEHB insurance. Now he needs surgery, and he was informed that this insurance is secondary and Medicare Part B, which he does not have, is primary. Is that accurate? Why is he paying $16,000 a year for in private insurance if it is only secondary? Also, I got the impression that if you don’t take Medicare…
Q: My father retired from federal civil service in 1974. At that time, he elected a survivor annuity for my mother with a base of $1,300. Initially, the Office of Personnel Management took out about $175 a month from his annuity for the survivor annuity, and of course this went up annually via cost-of-living adjustments, the same way his regular annuity did. He passed away in 2009. The OPM has calculated the survivor annuity for my mother, and she is receiving $789 a month net, reduced by $153 for insurance, which leaves $636 a month. Over the 35 years of…
Q: I may be transitioning to nonappropriated-funds employment. I would be keeping my Federal Employees Retirement System status. There is no provision for me to stay enrolled in the Federal Employees Health Benefits program while I am a NAF employee. When I retire (under FERS), can I re-enroll in FEHB and have the premiums deducted from my pension? This is a make-or-break issue for me. A: No, you won’t be able to re-enroll.