Who is eligible to join?
MIT, Lincoln Laboratory, and Whitehead employees who are benefits eligible may join the Traditional MIT Health Plan and the Flexible MIT Health Plan. Draper employees who are benefits eligible may join the Traditional MIT Health Plan. For definitions of the different eligibility categories, review the Summary Plan Description. General information is listed here. You may choose:

• an individual contract to cover yourself, or
• a family contract to cover
• yourself
• your spouse, or your same-sex or opposite-sex spousal equivalent (if your employer provides this coverage. For more information, check with your benefits office)
• your unmarried dependent children, until the end of the month of their 25th birthday as long as they remain unmarried, live in the service area, (if not enrolled as a student at an accredited degree-granting institute of higher learning), and are not eligible for coverage through an employer or other group plan. The requirement to live in the service area does not apply to members of the Flexible MIT Health Plan. Members of the Flexible MIT Health Plan may live outside of the service area.
• a dependent child of one of your dependent children, but only as long as the dependent parent is eligible and remains on your contract
• an unmarried child over age 25 who is physically or mentally handicapped and therefore unable to earn his or her own living. You must apply for this special coverage through the MIT Health Plan office before the child's 25th birthday. For details, call the MIT Health Plan at 617-253-1322
• your former spouse if you are divorced or legally separated, until one of you remarries, unless such an arrangement is specifically prohibited by a court order. If you remarry, a court order may obligate you to provide coverage for your former spouse as long as he or she remains unmarried. In this situation, it is possible for your former spouse to be covered by an individual contract at the full unsubsidized cost, but only if you request this coverage through your employer's benefits office

When you are enrolled in the MIT Traditional Health Plan, you must obtain your medical care at the Cambridge and Lexington MIT Medical facilities and you must reside in the enrollment area. The MIT Health Plan enrollment area is defined as the geographic area of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. The service area for the Traditional MIT Health Plan is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

If you and/or your family members live permanently outside of the plan's service area or are away from the service area for more than 90 days in a calendar year for sabbaticals, leaves of absence, extended vacations, etc., you are not eligible for membership in the Traditional MIT Health Plan but you may have the option to enroll in the Flexible MIT Health Plan instead. Members of the Flexible MIT Health Plan are not required to live within the MIT Health Plan service area.

For information on other health insurance options, contact your employer's benefits office.

As employers, MIT, Lincoln Laboratory, Whitehead, and Draper have certain rules about when you may begin, end, or change your health insurance and who can enroll as an eligible dependent. For more information, contact your employer's benefits office.

If you are pregnant and have an individual contract with the Traditional MIT Health Plan or Flexible MIT Health Plan, you must change to a family contract within 31 days of the child's birth, so that you have adequate insurance coverage for the hospitalization. To change your contract from individual to family, contact your benefits office.