If space is not available or if a facility does
not exist close to a retired member or a dependent,
CHAMPUS provides for partial payment of
civilian health care. Through CHAMPUS,
uniformed services retired members and their
families have one of the best health plans available
anywhere. CHAMPUS shares most health care
costs from civilian hospitals and doctors when a
person can’t get care through a military hospital
or clinic. CHAMPUS covers most health care that
is medically necessary.
You may want to consider purchasing a supple-
mental CHAMPUS insurance plan when you
retire, if you do not already have one. Your
coverage under CHAMPUS is slightly different
from that you had while on active duty; you need
to know those differences before using it. Once
you retire, CHAMPUS coverage for you and your
dependents is limited as follows:
Pays up to 75 percent of the outpatient
charges for you and your dependents, once
a 0 per person or 0 per family
deductible is met; pays up to 75 percent
of inpatient (hospital) charges, with no
deductible
Does not cover all health care
Pays only for medically necessary care and
services provided at an appropriate level
of care
Does not cover certain people (active-duty
service members, parents, parents-in-law,
and persons eligible
Survivor Benefit Plan
A program that assures
for survivors of retired
for Medicare)
financial protection
uniformed service
members went into effect on September 21, 1972,
as Public Law 92-425. This program, called the
Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP), provides an annuity
income for survivors of retired uniformed service
members.
Until passage of this law, the retired pay of
retired members of the uniformed services ended
with their death, unless they had elected
voluntarily to participate in the Retired Service-
man’s Family Protection Plan. Therefore,
surviving members of a retiree’s family often
found themselves with little or no income
following the retiree’s death. SBP fills that
financial gap in the area of service benefits.
As a prospective retiree, your family is
automatically covered under SBP at the time of
your retirement. You may elect SBP coverage to
guarantee you family receives 55 percent of your
maximum retired pay to a minimum amount
designated by law. You also have the option to
decline any coverage under this plan. If you have
no spouse or dependent child at retirement time,
you can join the plan at that time by naming as
beneficiary a person who has an insurable interest
in you. You can begin participation later if you
acquire a spouse or child after retiring.
If you elect not to participate in SBP or elect
a lesser coverage, your spouse must sign a spousal
concurrence statement.
Several SBP options are available to you. You
may select only one of the following options:
Spouse only or former spouse only—These
two choices provide a monthly SBP check to your
spouse or former spouse for life in the event of
your death. If your spouse or former spouse
remarries before age 55, the payments are
suspended; but if that marriage ends, the SBP
payments start again. Former spouse elections
must be voluntary. If you agree to make former
spouse election as part of a divorce agreement or
court decree, then that election can be enforced
and you must honor that election.
Spouse and children or former spouse and
children—In these two cases, your spouse or
former spouse is the primary beneficiary; the
children are paid an annuity only if your spouse
or former spouse remarries before age 55 or dies.
Children only—Your children are covered
until age 18, or age 22 if full-time students.
Disabled children are paid for life if their disability
causes them to be incapable of self-support. The
disability must have been incurred when the child
was under the age of 18 or before age 22 while
attending school full time.
Persons with insurable interest—You may
elect SBP to cover a beneficiary who has a
legitimate financial interest in your continued life.
This beneficiary is normally a close family
member, such as a parent or sibling. The
beneficiary receives 55 percent of the retired pay
remaining after the premium deduction is made.
Since the federal government pays a substantial
part of the SBP cost, you give up only a small
part of your retired pay to provide maximum
coverage for dependents.
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