Are you one of those people who are too busy to shop for health insurance? If so, you are not alone.

Many federal workers, and most federal retirees, stay in the same health plan year-after-year. Even though premiums may go up and benefits go down. Doing nothing is easy, although sometimes expensive.

The good news is that it is hard to go wrong with any plan in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program. All of them are good and provide good benefits. And the government pays most of the premium. And you can’t be rejected by any plan for any reason. And retirees continue with the same coverage and premiums as those available to younger, healthier workers in the same plans.

But you can pay too much in premiums. Or you can skimp and take a plan with slightly lower premiums when a plan that costs just a little bit more offers better benefits – like drug coverage. The Checkbook’s Guide to Health Plans for Federal Employees is written by Walton Francis. You can order the book for $9.95 plus shipping and handling at www.guidetohealthplans.org. But first, click here to see if your agency has already purchased the online version for you.

Meantime, here’s a 60 second tutorial, from Checkbook’s Guide, for you to check out:

• If you are looking for best buys (lowest premiums and minimal out of pocket expenses) Checkbook’s Guide says that many HMOS (like Aetna and MD IPA), most of the consumer-driven plans, and national plans like BlueCross basic, the APWU and Foreign Service plans and GEHA’s standard options can save you lots of money next year.
• Your total annual costs (premiums and out of pocket payments) tend to be “substantially lower in HMOs…than in traditional insurance plans. For exemple, several DC area HMOs – Kaiser Mid-Atlantic standard option, MD-IPA and Aetna Open Access basic option – will save an average family well over $1,500 compared to the most popular plan, Blue Cross standard option.”
• The Guide says that all of the newest type health plans, “Consumer-Driven and High Deductible, offer employees substantial savings over almost all traditional insurance plans, and that those newer plans have loophole-free protection against high costs that are better than those in most traditional plans.”
• What the Guide calls bargain plans, like the Mail Handlers Value option as well as some of the high deductible (HD) plans with low premiums “offer ways for lower paid feds, part-timers and former employees to participate in the FEHBP at minimal cost.”

Remember the open season ends Dec. 13.

If you don’t like to make decisions, remember that doing nothing – staying in your current health plan – is in fact a decision. And if you stick with a plan where premiums are too high compared to what you will get back, you could be making a $2,000 mistake.

To reach me: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com

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