Question
Both my husband and I work for a VA. I will be retiring soon but he will still be working for a couple years after me. I plan on providing a survivor benefit for him because he will only have worked for the VA for 5 years so his pension won’t be that big.
My question is: If he is still working can he put me on his insurance and I drop out of mine and then pick up the insurance again before he retires or do I have to continue my insurance and he gets his own? He has always been on my insurance. I have been told that I can’t drop my insurance as I will lose it.
Answer
Great question.
Being a double fed household comes with some unique challenges and opportunities.
As long as both of you are always covered under FEHB (whether through yourself or your spouse) then you are good to go.
So, if your husband carries the insurance for both of you when you retire then you can switch back to your own plan at any open season in the future if you wanted to.
And this is what most federal couples do as you are able to pay for FEHB premiums with pre-tax dollars while working but this benefit goes away in retirement.
This means that if one spouse is going to work longer than the other the working spouse should almost always carry the insurance.
Here are some other opportunities for 2 fed households.
- Survivor Benefits: If both of you have federal pensions and are both eligible for FEHB on your own working history then you may not need survivor benefits for each other. This isn’t always the case but can save you a lot of money if it is.
- Medicare/FEHB: If there is age difference between the two spouses then that means you’ll hit age 65 (Medicare age) at different times.
A single fed household would be forced to pick an FEHB plan that works well with Medicare but also works for the spouse who isn’t on Medicare yet.
Each spouse in a double fed household can carry their own FEHB and pick a plan that is optimized for just them.
