ELIGIBLE SPOUSE

To have your spouse covered by the Plan, you must be legally married on the effective date of your pension under the Southern California IBEW-NECA Pension Plan.  Effective January 1, 2005, if you subsequently remarry because of the death of your spouse or divorce, your spouse will not be eligible for retiree health coverage unless you enroll your spouse under this Plan by the end of the second calendar month following the date of marriage.  Coverage for your new spouse shall commence as of the first of the month following enrollment.

For example, if a participant marries any time during the month of January, he may enroll his new spouse any time through March 31; coverage shall commence on April 1, the first of the month following enrollment.

Any spouse who is also a retired participant in the Southern California IBEW-NECA Retiree Health Plan and eligible for benefits under the Plan cannot also be eligible as a dependent spouse.

Except as provided in the paragraph below, an eligible retired employee and eligible spouse must select the same medical plan of benefits offered under the Retiree Health Plan.  For example, if the retired employee selects Kaiser Permanente as his choice of medical coverage, then his spouse must also enroll in Kaiser Permanente.  If one spouse is eligible for Medicare and the other is not, then the non-Medicare participant will be covered under the retiree Kaiser Permanente medical plan and the Medicare eligible participant will be covered under the Kaiser Permanente Medicare plan called Senior Advantage.

There is an exception to the above rule which is as follows: Disability retirees who live outside of the service area of any of the available HMO’s offered through the Trust, who are on Medicare with non-Medicare eligible spouse will be allowed to select different Health Plans.  The selection of different medical plans will also be allowed if the spouse is on Medicare and the retired employee is not eligible for Medicare.  For example, the disability retiree could be enrolled in Medicare and select the Medicare Supplement Plan and his non-Medicare spouse could select the Premium Reimbursement Plan.