If there is no surviving parent, your child’s FEHB coverage generally ends when the annuity ends. Image: New Africa/Shutterstock.com
By: Reg JonesOver the last two weeks, I’ve written about survivor annuities provided to eligible children. Now I want to zero in on the life and health insurance benefits they may be entitled to.
Life insurance
If you are an employee or retiree who is covered by the Federal Employee Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) program, the proceeds of that policy will go to your designated beneficiary(ies) if you have made such a designation. If you haven’t made such a designation, a standard “order of precedence” applies. First in line is your surviving spouse. If there isn’t any surviving spouse, your child or children are next in line.
Note: The same applies in the Thrift Savings Plan.
Health benefits
If you die while enrolled in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHB) program and have Self Plus One or Self and Family coverage, all your survivors who meet the definition of “family member” will automatically be able to continue that coverage if they receive a survivor annuity.
If there is only one survivor annuitant and no other family member is eligible for continued coverage, the enrollment should be changed to the less expensive Self Only coverage.
At one time, a child could only continue to be covered under a survivor parent’s FEHB plan until he or she reached age 22 and remained unmarried. However, the law changed. As a result, if you are enrolled in a Self and Family option of your plan and have a child who is under age 26, he or she can be covered by it, even if married.
If there is no surviving parent, your child’s coverage generally ends when the annuity ends. At that point, your child may convert to an individual policy (with lower benefits) or apply for temporary continuation of coverage (TCC) with FEHB-level benefits for up to 36 months. In either case, the child will have to pay the full cost and, with TCC, an additional 2 percent for administrative expenses.
Because the rules for continuing FEHB coverage are different for a disabled child, I’ll fill you in about that next week.
Former head of retirement and insurance policy at the Office of Personnel Management, and longtime FEDweek contributor, Reg Jones is known throughout the federal workforce community as an authority on pay and benefits.
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