The Supplemental Health Insurance Program (SHIP) is among the most popular of the many UFT benefits offered to retirees. Today, 67,000 retirees plus their spouses or domestic partners are enrolled in the program.

Retirees must enroll in SHIP within the first year of retirement.

SHIP was developed in 1977 by the Retired Teachers Chapter as a supplement to the coverage available from the regular health insurance benefits provided to employees. Its focus is on retiree needs, and it is activated only after regular insurance providers have paid their benefits. Last year, SHIP processed 22,000 claims.

Created by retirees for retirees, SHIP is managed by a seven-member board of trustees — three are members of the RTC Executive Board and four are members of the UFT Executive Board — and provides worldwide coverage.

Its wide-ranging supplemental benefits include ambulances, hearing aids, customized orthopedic shoes, surgical stockings and private-duty nursing. Benefits are improved or new benefits are added approximately every two years.

“SHIP trustees add or improve benefits where they will do the most good for the most members,” said SHIP Director Irene Lospenuso.

The most popular benefit, the dental stipend, is an example of how a benefit has improved. In its earliest days, the stipend, which pays for out-of-pocket dental expenses, paid $100 every other year; it now pays $300 every year. Almost as popular is the reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses up to $1,500 once every three years for new hearing aids. Two years ago, SHIP added a supplement to help defray the cost of wigs needed as a result of medical issues.

SHIP participants may receive a lifetime maximum benefit of $100,000.

To enroll, a retiree must be receiving a pension check and be covered by a primary health plan. If Medicare eligible, a retiree must be enrolled in Parts A and B. After enrolling, benefit eligibility begins on the first day of the month in which the member retired.

The cost of belonging to SHIP has gone up over its more than 40-year history. But it’s still considered one of the best buys in town at $120 a year — a $10 pension deduction each month. For retirees who prefer to pay by check annually, there is a $30 administrative fee.

Lospenuso calls SHIP “my baby” because she has been aboard since its inception, when she was hired as a temporary employee to open mail. She has nurtured it and watched it grow in popularity and in its ability to help retirees meet the ever-mounting costs of health care.

She warns retirees to remember that SHIP is a supplemental program and, as a separate entity, requires enrollees to apply for benefits only after primary payments have been satisfied and to notify SHIP separately of any changes such as a new address, a divorce or a death.

Visit the UFT website for answers to many questions and a booklet detailing the program, a full description of each benefit, claim forms and instructions for filling out the forms. Additional information is available by calling the SHIP office at 212-228-9060.