Each year the government holds an extended open season when workers, retirees and survivors can shop around for a new health insurance plan. This year, that open season, which also includes some other optional government benefit programs, runs from Nov. 10 until Dec. 8.

The Federal Employee Health Benefits Program is the largest in the nation. Many believe it is the best employer-backed health program and that its best parts were the model for the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). It’s a big deal, and yet …

If past is prologue, most federal and postal workers will either sleepwalk through the open season and do nothing. Others will wait until the last minute, shop frantically and, in most cases, stick with the plan they’ve been in for years.

The government will spend a ton of money getting out information about benefit and premium changes to the 9 million people covered by the FEHBP. Insurance carriers will spend a ton of money trying to convince people — especially the young and healthy — that they should enroll in their plan.

With dozens of plans to choose from — both nationwide fee-for-service and localized health maintenance organizations — employees and retirees will have lots of choices. The government will pay roughly 72 percent of the total premium for non-postal employees and retirees. It will pay an even bigger share of the premium for active duty postal workers.

Many federal agencies will subscribe to the online version of the Consumers Checkbook Guide to Federal Health Plans. In addition to paying for the service for its workers, many agencies will permit them to shop for the best health plan deal on government time!

For most feds, and particularly for retirees, the open season is a waste of time and money. The vast majority of people stay in the same plan (Blue Cross-Blue Shield) year-after-year.

This year it may be a little different. The government says that the average total premium will be going up only 3.2 percent, although the employee share will rise an average of 3.8 percent. But those averages don’t tell the full story. Bottom line is how much the premium for your plan is going up.

The tail that wags the dog in the FEHBP is Blue Cross-Blue Shield. It has about 60 percent of the total enrollment, and an even bigger share of the retiree population. Next year, the BC-BS basic single and family option premium for employees will go up $2.44 and $5.71 biweekly. The standard option will increase $3.21 and $8.33, respectively, for self-only and family options. The much larger government share of the premium is also going up.

For instance, in 2015 the total monthly premium for the popular BC-BS standard family option will go up to $$1,434.07 per month, but nonpostal workers and retirees will pay ‘only’ $462.17 of that amount.

Federal white collar workers got a 1 percent pay raise in January of this year and are due a 1 percent increase in 2015. They did not get any statutory pay increase in 2011, 2012 or 2013. Although many did get a 3 percent longevity (time-in-grade) raise during that period, many feds are faced with the prospect of paying 2015 health premiums based on a their pay scale of two, three or four years ago. And in many cases state and federal taxes have gone up.

We won’t know how many (or few) workers and retirees change plans until the open season is over. But despite the modest increase in premiums (no matter whose average you believe) there is good reason to shop around this time around.

NEARLY USELESS FACTOID:

By Michael O’Connell

About 25 percent of all children experience one or more episodes of somnambulism (sleepwalking) between the ages of 7 and 12.

Source: ArcaMax.

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Feds’ health care costs to increase by 3.2 percent in 2015
Many federal employees can expect to pay, on average, 3.2 percent more for health care in fiscal 2015. The Office of Personnel Management Tuesday released the latest costs for the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) for non-Postal Service employees, and the standard option, which is the most popular choice among feds, will increase by less than 4 percent for the fourth year in a row.

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