U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

Family members eligible for coverage under your family enrollment are your spouse (including a valid common law marriage) and unmarried dependent children under age 22, including legally adopted children and recognized natural (born out of wedlock) children who meet certain dependency requirements. Your stepchildren and foster children are included if they live with you in a regular parent-child relationship. An unmarried dependent child age 22 or over who is incapable of self-support because of a mental or physical disability that existed before age 22 is also an eligible family member. Your employing office will look at the child's relationship to you as the enrollee to determine whether the child is a covered family member.

Public Law 104-199, Defense of Marriage Act, states, " the word 'marriage' means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word 'spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife."

You can find more information about family members at dependents.

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