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FRS Planning

The Health Insurance Subsidy: small, specific, and easy to lose.

A monthly payment toward your health insurance. The amounts are in statute. So is the deadline that costs people the back pay.

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The amounts

$7.50 per month for each year of creditable service. Minimum $45. Maximum $225. Service counted caps at 30 years.

Years of serviceMonthly HIS
10$75.00
20$150.00
25$187.50
30 or more$225.00

Effective July 1, 2023, under §112.363, Florida Statutes. The prior figures ($5.00 per year, $30 minimum, $150 maximum) are still widely republished, including on material dated well after the change. If you have read $150 as your maximum, check the date on what you were reading.

There is no COLA on HIS. The rate is fixed in statute.

Five bars showing the monthly subsidy against years of creditable service. Six years pays the forty-five dollar minimum, ten years seventy-five dollars, twenty years one hundred and fifty dollars, twenty-five years one hundred and eighty-seven dollars fifty, and thirty years or more the two hundred and twenty-five dollar maximum. Service counted stops at thirty years. $7.50 A MONTH FOR EACH YEAR OF CREDITABLE SERVICE 6 years of service $45.00 10 years of service $75.00 20 years of service $150.00 25 years of service $187.50 30 years of service $225.00 The floor is $45. The ceiling is $225. Service counted stops at 30 years.
The schedule is set in section 112.363 and took effect on 1 July 2023. The two dark bars are the floor and the ceiling, not points on the line.

The six-month deadline

HIS is not automatic. You apply, and you certify that you carry qualifying coverage.

The application must reach the Division of Retirement within six months of your retirement date.

Forms: HIS-1 for Pension Plan members, HIS-IP and HIS-IP-2 for Investment Plan members.

Apply within six months and it is backdated to your retirement date. Apply later and it starts the month the Division receives your certification, backdated at most six months. You keep the subsidy either way. The back pay is what you lose, and those six months run while you are dealing with everything else.

Qualifying coverage is broader than most people expect: health, cancer, accident, disability, dental or vision coverage, Medicare Part A or Part B, TRICARE, or military health coverage, and someone else can pay the premium. Medicaid and Medically Needy do not count.

Two details that change the number

DROP years do not count. Time in DROP is not creditable service for HIS. Your amount is fixed at the service you had when DROP began. Eight years in DROP adds nothing.

A surviving spouse can continue it, and in the Pension Plan so can another joint annuitant who is receiving a monthly benefit from your account. In the Investment Plan, only a spouse.

Eligibility

Retired and receiving an FRS benefit, with 6 years of service if enrolled before July 1, 2011 or 8 years if on or after, and carrying qualifying coverage.

Investment Plan members qualify differently: meet Pension Plan normal retirement requirements, take a distribution, and terminate all employment with all FRS employers.

The other clock running alongside it

If you are in the State Group Insurance Program, continuing your health coverage as a retiree runs on its own deadline: People First must receive both your application and your first month's premium within 60 days. You must be enrolled at retirement to continue, and cancelling retiree coverage later means you cannot rejoin. Other FRS employers run their own plans on their own deadlines. Confirm yours with your benefits office before your termination date.

What it does not do

At $225 a month for a full thirty-year career, HIS offsets part of a premium. It covers no deductible, no copay, no out-of-pocket maximum.

The years between retirement and Medicare at 65 are the expensive ones, and Special Risk members reaching normal retirement in their fifties can face a decade of them. Bridge coverage (COBRA, a retiree plan, a spouse's plan, a marketplace policy) is the real number. HIS is a line item against it.

We do not sell insurance. What we do is get the cost of those years into the plan as a figure rather than an assumption. See Medicare Education.

Questions

Questions we hear most.

How much is it?
$7.50 per month per year of creditable service, minimum $45, maximum $225, service capped at 30 years.
Do I have to apply?
Yes. Apply within six months and it is backdated to your retirement date. Apply later and you still qualify, with at most six months of back pay.
Does DROP time increase it?
No.
Does it get a COLA?
No. The rate is set in statute.
Can my spouse keep it?
A surviving spouse can. In the Pension Plan, so can another joint annuitant who is receiving a monthly benefit from your account. In the Investment Plan, only a spouse.
Important

This page is educational and is not individualized advice. Benowitz Wealth Management is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Florida Retirement System, the Florida Division of Retirement, or the State Board of Administration of Florida. Confirm the figures that apply to your own record at MyFRS.com or with the Division of Retirement.

Six months from your retirement date. Apply later and you keep the subsidy, with at most six months of back pay.

Independent, fee-only retirement planning for Florida’s public employees, built around your FRS benefit and everything you’ve built on the side.

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