Selecting Your Plan

Who’s Eligible to Enroll in a Plan?

If you have questions about eligibility, please call STRS Ohio’s Member Services Center toll-free at 1-888-227-7877.

New Eligibility Rules Apply for Reemployed Retirees
Effective Jan. 1, 2009, STRS Ohio will provide only secondary health care coverage to any reemployed retiree — not eligible for Medicare — who is employed in a public or private position and the reemployed retiree or employees in other comparable positions is eligible for health care coverage through an employer. This provision applies if: (1) the employer provides coverage to other employees in comparable positions at a cost no more than the cost of coverage offered to full-time employees; and (2) the plan provides medical and prescription drug coverage.

Impacted individuals are required to complete and return a Verification of Employment and Employer Health Care Access form. Those who do not submit the form to STRS Ohio by Nov. 25, 2008, will have their health care coverage terminated on Dec. 31, 2008. Click here to read eligibility examples of this new health care rule. If you have questions, please call STRS Ohio’s Member Services Center toll-free at 1-888-227-7877.

Service Retirement Benefit Recipient
Service retirement benefit recipients with 15 or more years of service have access to health care coverage and receive a premium subsidy. Service retirement benefit recipients with a benefit effective date before Jan. 1, 2004, with less than 15 years of service credit have access to coverage, but pay the full cost of their health care premium.

Disability Benefit Recipient
Disability benefit recipients are eligible for access to health care coverage and a premium subsidy.

Survivor Benefit Recipient
Most survivors and their dependents have access to health care coverage and receive a premium subsidy for the first five years, with the first year beginning the latter of Jan. 1, 2004, or the effective date of benefits. See Subsidy for Survivors for details.

Spouse
Spouses of service retirement and disability benefit recipients enrolled in the STRS Ohio Health Care Program are eligible for access to health care, but pay the full cost of their health care premium. Please note that a survivor benefit recipient can only enroll a spouse as a sponsored dependent if eligibility criteria are met and must pay the full cost of the health care premium.

Dependent or Incapacitated Child
Dependent or incapacitated children of service retirement or disability benefit recipients who meet the guidelines below are eligible for access to health care, but pay the full cost of their health care premium. You must be enrolled in an STRS Ohio health care plan to enroll a dependent.

To be eligible for access to health care, the dependent or incapacitated child must:

1. Be a dependent biological child, a nonbiological child who is legally adopted, a stepchild or a child for whom you have been appointed legal guardian; and
2. Reside in your home; and
3. Meet one of the following eligibility requirements:
• Child is unmarried and under age 18; or
• Child is unmarried, under age 22, attending school on at least a two-thirds-of-full-time basis and receiving 50% or more financial support from the benefit recipient (applies if benefit recipient’s effective date of benefits was Jan. 1, 2003, or later); or
• Child is unmarried, under age 23, attending school on at least a two-thirds-of-full-time basis and receiving 50% or more financial support from the benefit recipient (applies if benefit recipient’s effective date of benefits was before Jan. 1, 2003); or
• Child is unmarried and unable to earn a living because of a mentally or physically disabling condition that started before the date the child reaches the maximum age for dependent children as outlined above.

Sponsored Dependent
Sponsored dependents who meet the guidelines below are eligible for access to health care coverage, but pay the full cost of their health care premium.

To be eligible for access to health care coverage, a child sponsored dependent must be under age 18 and unable to qualify as a dependent child. An adult sponsored dependent must be age 18 or older and unable to qualify as a dependent child or as a spouse. Sponsored dependents who may qualify for health care coverage include:

• A blood relative living in the home of a benefit recipient. “Home” includes a convalescent center or any other type of institution that retains the person only temporarily. To qualify as a blood relative, a person must have a direct genetic relationship to the benefit recipient, rather than a relationship through marriage.
• A blood relative not living in the home of the benefit recipient, but receiving 50% or more financial support from the recipient in the last six months (as demonstrated by completion of a financial status form provided by STRS Ohio or your most recent federal income tax return on which you claimed your sponsored dependent).
• Any person (including the spouse of a survivor benefit recipient) living in the home of a benefit recipient and receiving 50% or more financial support from the survivor or benefit recipient in the last six months (as demonstrated by completion of a financial status form provided by STRS Ohio or your most recent federal income tax return on which you claimed your sponsored dependent).
• Any person living in the home of an unmarried service retirement or disability benefit recipient who does not claim the sponsored dependent as a financial dependent on the IRS tax return.