Number of people enrolled in FEHBP expected to rise

Federal News Radio: "The number of people covered by the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program is expected to jump dramatically next year and the number of people switching from self-only to family coverage will also go up. Those eligible for FEHBP coverage will include dependent children and foster children up to age 26 who are not living with their federal parents. The FEHBP cradle-to-grave program is the biggest (and many say best) employer-provided health care system in the nation. It covers nearly 9 million individuals from young healthy letter carriers, IRS agents, astronauts, CIA staffers and U.S. Senators to 100-year-old retirees or their surviving spouses. It some cases it also covers the divorced spouses of federal workers or retirees." The government pays about 72 percent of the total cost of premiums. Workers and retirees have the ability to switch plans each year — and sometimes more often than that (Causey, 9/14).

Federal Times: "Two proposals to lower health insurance costs for employees and retirees are unlikely to advance until the economy and the government's fiscal outlook improve, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said [Monday]. Hoyer told representatives of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association that he would like to increase the government's share of Federal Employees Health Benefits Program premiums to 80 percent, but doesn't see that change happening soon. … The government has steadily been shifting more premium costs to employees in recent years" (Losey, 9/13).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.