Federal Annuitants
What is a federal annuitant?
A federal annuitant is a retired federal or postal employee.
What advantages do federal annuitants have?
Federal annuitants and survivor annuitants have unique benefits as compared to seniors in the private sector. Federal annuitants have choice in health care coverage with the opportunity to participate in the annual Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) open season every year.
The FEHBP offers federal annuitants the same health plans as active employees. This means that federal annuitants have the option to keep the coverage they had as an active employee right into retirement (generally 5 years of continuous FEHBP coverage is necessary prior to retirement). The federal government contributes the same amount toward annuitant medical premiums as they do towards active non-postal employees medical premiums.
How does Medicare coordinate with annuitant FEHBP health coverage?
FEHBP coverage combined with Medicare means greater benefits than just FEHBP coverage or Medicare alone. Coupling Medicare Parts A and B with FEHBP coverage minimizes out-of-pocket costs. Also, since federal annuitants have comprehensive medical coverage provided by the FEHBP plan, there is no need to purchase Medigap coverage or Medicare Part D.
What is NARFE?
NARFE stands for National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association. The organization was founded by federal employees in 1921 and exists to protect and improve the retirement benefits of federal annuitants, employees, and their families.
For more information on federal annuitant benefits, click on the below links:
