When choosing your benefit plan, you’re not necessarily making a choice just for yourself, but often for your spouse and children as well. It’s worth investigating whether your plan meets your needs as a family, and what kind of coverage they will receive.
Coverage for Spouses
For most retirees, their list of dependants is limited to a spouse or common-law partner, and you can rest assured that ARTA will extend the same level of coverage to you and that partner. Simply put, if you’re receiving coverage through ARTA, so can they. Their eligibility also remains after your passing, so your partner can continue to be covered after your death. This is even the case if you pass away before becoming an ARTA member. If you met the requirements for membership before your death, your spouse can still apply to receive coverage through ARTA.
Coverage for Children
A common retirement stereotype is that it is a time of freedom for parents, when children are grown up and completely independent. But for many families, that’s simply not the case. Children of ARTA members can receive coverage through ARTA until they turn 21 years old — with a few caveats. They must be unmarried and not employed on a regular, full-time basis. This gives them a grace period to plan their future without worrying about where their healthcare coverage will come from. This coverage period can even be extended to age 25, as long as your child is a full-time student at an accredited school, college, or university.
Who counts as a child? It’s a common question, but ARTA doesn’t discriminate based on your family’s circumstances. The same coverage is available to natural children, legally adopted children, stepchildren, and foster children.
One more item worth noting, is that if you do not have a spouse, but do have a dependant child, you can apply for couple’s coverage with them as your dependant — it’s more cost-effective than applying for family coverage, though the same eligibility rules apply.
Adult Children with Disabilities
Not all children will become independent from their parents, and ARTA is mindful of that reality. Children of ARTA members who have a physical or mental disability that renders them incapable of sustaining fulltime employment (or in other words, those who are fully dependent on you for support) are eligible for coverage, no matter their age, for as long as you remain an ARTA member.