Federal employees will have a rare opportunity starting Thursday to join or to increase existing coverage in the government-sponsored life insurance program without restrictions.
The open season in the Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance program, which will continue through September, will not apply to retirees, however.
About 2.4 million federal employees, including employees of the semi-independent U.S. Postal Service, are enrolled in the program, about 89 percent of those eligible, according to the Office of Personnel Management, which administers a contract with the MetLife insurance company to run the program.
FEGLI is term-type insurance that offers “basic” coverage equal to an employee’s salary rounded to the next $1,000 plus $2,000; an option for $10,000 in additional coverage; an option for up to five times the employee’s salary rounded to the next $1,000; and optional coverage of up to $25,000 on a spouse and up to $12,500 0n each dependent child under age 22.
Premiums for each type of insurance vary by age. Enrollees pay the full cost except that most employing agencies pay two-thirds of the cost of basic insurance; the USPS pays the full cost of that coverage for its employees.
Due to claims patterns, some premium rates increased and some others decreased effective in January.
[Some federal employee life insurance rates to rise; others to see decrease]
Unlike the federal health insurance and vision-dental insurance programs, which hold an annual open season, the life insurance program has no set schedule of open seasons. Officials said the FEGLI open season is not linked to the recent premium changes but rather to the time that has passed since the most recent one in 2004.
“We do think that employees should look hard at this and if they haven’t reassessed their insurance before they should do so now,” Alan Spielman, OPM assistant director for healthcare and insurance, said in a conference call with reporters.
During the prior open season, officials said, about 146,000 changes were made, including new enrollments and increases in existing coverage.
However, coverage choices — and the resulting changes in premium costs to the employee — won’t take effect for a year, until October 2017, which he said is “necessary in a life insurance program to maintain the stability of a premium base.”
Employees make coverage elections on a form available through personnel offices and at www.opm.gov/forms; some agencies use electronic versions. OPM stressed that enrollees “should be careful to elect all FEGLI coverage they want on their Open Season election, not just the coverage they want to add or increase. Any coverage not elected is waived or cancelled.”
Outside of an open season, employees may join the program or increase coverage only immediately after hiring, after experiencing a life event such as marriage, or after undergoing a medical examination. Enrollees may cancel or decrease their coverage at any time.
Retirees can continue the coverage they had while actively employed — although they may not newly enroll or increase coverage — so long as they had that level of coverage for at least the five years before retiring. That means that employees newly joining the program or increasing coverage during the open season could not continue that coverage into retirement if they retire before October 2022.
Also continuing through September is an opportunity for those enrolled in the federal long-term care insurance program and who are affected by upcoming premium increases to restructure their benefits to soften the impact or, in most cases, to stop paying premiums while remaining eligible for a reduced paid-up benefit.
[Costs skyrocket for feds’ long-term-care insurance]
The annual open season to join or change coverage in the health insurance and vision-dental insurance programs will run November 14-December 12.
