NARFE Legislative Update 686 2010 FEHBP Premiums

[tombogan03884]

My Mother is a retired Air Force employee, this is the text of an E Mail she recently received from her insurance provider.
This seems to be how the left plans on getting our money to pay for their healthcare "reform".

his NARFE Legislative Hotline, number 686, was released Friday, October 2nd.  2010 FEHBP Premiums and NARFE members’ response to Senate amendments threatening the FEHBP are covered.  The next Hotline is set for Friday, October 9th.  (649 words; 4:13)

 

On September 29th, OPM announced 2010 FEHBP Premiums will increase an average of 8.8 percent.  Responding to that news, NARFE President Margaret L. Baptiste expressed concern that federal annuitants and workers will be burdened by the large premium increases.  “The overall average Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) premium increase of 8.8 percent for 2010 will be difficult for federal annuitants to shoulder in a year when no cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is expected and when the federal employee pay raise is anticipated to be minimal,” Baptiste said.  (More detail in NARFE press release on the web site, at http://www.narfe.org/departments/home/articles.cfm?ID=1900)

 

NARFE’s President is also troubled that the share paid by employees and retirees in the program’s most popular plan (Blue Cross/Blue Shield Standard option) will jump by 12.4 percent for family plans and 15.1 percent for self-only coverage.  “A 12-percent increase in our program’s most popular plan is bad enough,” said Baptiste.  “What’s worse is that this comes at a time when some in Congress effectively want to end the FEHBP and enroll federal workers in an exchange system.”

 

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, scaled back a proposal that would have required all federal employees to move from FEHBP to state-based health exchanges so it applied only to members of Congress and their staffers. The Senate Finance Committee passed the narrower version of the amendment on Tuesday (September 29th) night by unanimous consent.  Given the vote occurred without objection from either side of the aisle, moving all or some of FEHBP participants into a newly reformed health care system will be ongoing as the Congress moves to finish the bill this year.

 

Baptiste praised the 6,716 NARFE members who used NARFE’s Legislative Action Center to tell their Senators of NARFE’s opposition to two amendments considered by the Senate Finance Committee.  This immediate opposition to the amendments offered by Senators Grassley (R-IA) and Wyden (D-OR) aroused the most NARFE members ever to use the Legislative Action Center in a one week period.  NARFE’s grass root action contributed to the decision to water down the Grassley amendment.

 

To add your voice in defense of the FEHBP choose the Legislative Action Center from the Legislation Department home page.  (The direct link is  http://capwiz.com/narfe/issues/alert/?alertid=14103226)  While delighted with the record response, sustaining this outpouring would be easier if more NARFE members provided their e-mail address so GEMS could reach them.  To do so use your NARFE ID number (provided on the address block of each issue of NARFE magazine) and date of birth to enter your own record.  The direct link is https://www.narfe.org/departments/isi/join_gems.cfm

 

2010 premiums for employees and retirees are available as Adobe ® files on the OPM web site, www.opm.gov  That means files in a portable document format (pdf) are available at http://www.opm.gov/insure/health/rates/index.asp  Both the November (pages 36-49) and December issues of NARFE magazine will provide the additional coverage begun in the October issue, pages 36-42.

 

Prior to the upcoming “Open Season,” November 9, 2009 through December 14, 2009, OPM will mail annuitants detailed information about costs and benefits in FEHBP and about the Dental and Vision plans, now in their fourth year.  Availability of dental and vision plans, along with their premiums and benefits will vary, are not dependent upon enrollment in the FEHBP, and unlike the health insurance plans, enrollees will pay the full cost of any elected option.

 

Thank you for using the Hotline.  This weekly legislative message is available to telephone callers (703/838-7780 and toll free at 1-877-217-8234), posted on NARFE's Internet site, www.narfe.org, made available to NARFE-Net Coordinators; and broadcast to over 48,000 GEMS e-mail addresses.  Each delivery channel is a service of NARFE, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association.