Benefits
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The Office of Personnel Management recently filed two proposals to change how feds enroll in the Federal Employee Dental and Vision Insurance Program and to expand the regulations of the Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance.
January 02, 2014 -
Are you a federal employee who uses public transportation to get to work? Be prepared to shell out more for your commute. Because of congressional inaction, a tax subsidy for mass-transit commuters is set to drop nearly in half — from a maximum of $245 a month to $130.
January 01, 2014 -
Under federal "use it or lose it" rules, any unspent money employees set aside last year to pay for out-of-pocket health costs, such as prescriptions or co-pays, is forfeited at the end of the year. But a group of senators from states surrounding the Washington, D.C., area, wants to change that. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) along with Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) wrote to Katherine Archuleta, the head of the Office of Personnel Management, requesting the agency implement new regulations that would allow federal employees to roll over as much as $500 in unused funds from year to year.
December 30, 2013 -
Thanks to the bipartisan budget deal passed by Congress and on its way to the President's desk, though, federal employees will soon have a new health-insurance coverage option: "self plus one." Federal employees have long clamored for the couples-only option, but the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the FEHBP, has always demurred, citing concerns it would disrupt the risk-sharing inherent in large group plans. Now, with the self-plus-one option enshrined in law, at least one federal-employee union finds OPM's recent change of heart "problematic."
December 19, 2013 -
AFGE's public policy director Jacqueline Simon explains why her organization is opposed to the self plus one plan, and Sean Reilly and Andy Medici from the Federal Times will discuss what's ahead for feds and retirees in 2014. December 18, 2013 (Encore presentations December 25, 2013 and January 1, 2014)
December 18, 2013 -
What do you think about a couples-only federal health plan? Would that be fair to the group plan and its group rates? The addition of a self-plus-one health plan could have consequences not only for that couple's premiums but also yours, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.
December 18, 2013 -
On this week's Your Turn radio show, host Mike Causey examines what's in the most recent budget deal that will impact feds.
December 11, 2013 -
Newly hired federal workers will be required to contribute more toward their pensions and some military retirees will see smaller cost-of-living adjustments under a budget deal announced by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) Tuesday evening. The budget deal, which sets funding levels for the next two years, eases some of the bite of the automatic spending cuts, known as sequestration. The pact restores about $63 billion to agency spending through the end of fiscal 2015, split about evenly between Defense and civilian agencies.
December 11, 2013 -
The two employee unions say lawmakers shouldn't make up for sequestration cuts by forcing federal employees to contribute more to their retirement. House and Senate legislators are working on a small-scale budget deal that reportedly includes a provision to alter federal retirement benefits.
December 06, 2013 -
Is the upcoming weekend a time for dinner, dancing and romance or are you going to curl up with a batch of health-insurance brochures? The latter might the smarter choice, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.
December 06, 2013 -
Walton Francis, author of the Checkbook Guide to Federal Health Plans, will answer your calls and emails about open season. December 4, 2013
December 04, 2013 -
When veterans and their families, who receive disability compensation and retirement benefits from the Veterans Affairs Department, receive their annual cost-of-living increase next month, for the first time ever, it won't be rounded down to the nearest dollar. Overall, the COLA for veterans benefits will increase 1.5 percent. Until this year, the COLA for veterans' benefits was rounded down to the nearest dollar. That will change with payments beginning in January.
December 04, 2013 -
If you live a perfect lifestyle and your parents and grandparents celebrated their 85th anniversary in the Bridal Suite of your local Motel 6, you can skip today's column, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says. Otherwise, listen up.
December 04, 2013 -
Requiring federal employees to contribute more of their salary toward retirement is rumored to be among the proposals being considered by the House-Senate budget conference committee as an partial alternative to the sequestration budget cuts. The proposal, which the Congressional Budget Office has concluded would increase federal revenues by nearly $20 billion over 10 years, has criticism from federal-employee unions. But now, at least one think tank, known for its hawkish stance on reducing the deficit, says the proposal could end up not saving the government a dime.
December 02, 2013 -
In most serious situations, it's good to have a fallback Plan B. When shopping for health insurance you need four of them, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.
December 02, 2013