Current nonparticipants will be able to elect any coverage they could have elected previously upon retiring from active service or upon receiving notification of eligibility for Reserve retired pay at age 60.
If they have a reduced election, they may increase their coverage. A participant with child-only coverage may add a spouse or former spouse to their coverage, and a person may add child coverage to spouse or former spouse coverage.
But those who took coverage and later elected to terminate that coverage are not eligible to make an open enrollment election.
Open enrollment elections require a lump sum buy-in premium as well as future monthly premiums. The lump sum equates to all back premiums, plus interest, from the date of original eligibility to make an election plus any amount needed to protect the Military Retirement Fund. The latter amount applies almost exclusively to those paying fewer than seven years of back payments.
The lump sum buy-in premium can be paid over a two-year period. Monthly premiums for spouse or former spouse coverage will be 6.5 percent of the coverage elected, the same premium paid by those currently enrolled. Reserve component members under age 60 and not yet eligible for retired pay do not pay back premiums or interest, but must pay a monthly plan premium "add-on" once their retired pay starts.
Elections are effective the first day of the month after the election is received, but no earlier than Oct. 1. An election is void if the retiree dies in the two years following an election and all premiums are refunded to the designated survivor.
To make an open enrollment election, a retiree can complete and submit a DD Form 2656-9, "Survivor Benefit Plan and Reserve Component Survivor Benefit Plan Open Enrollment Election." The form is available electronically at www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/infomgt/forms/eforms/dd2656-9.pdf
For assistance with the form, people can contact the retiree activities office.
Retirees can mail the completed form to the address specified on the form. Applicants will be formally notified of their cost and have 30 days from the date of the notice to cancel the election by notifying the Defense Finance and Accounting Service or the reserve component, as applicable, in writing.