by Greg Bell, APWU Executive Vice President
Thanks, But No Thanks
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe renewed his call to remove postal employees and retirees from the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) in testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on July 17.
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“Now is the time for bold and sweeping action,” the Postmaster General (PMG) told lawmakers. “We’re seeking the authority under law to control our healthcare and retirement costs,” he said.
Where have we heard this before?
Donahoe first urged lawmakers to take postal employees and retirees out of the FEHBP at a House hearing on March 27, 2012, claiming such a move would save the USPS $7 billion annually. (Now he claims savings would reach $8 billion per year.)
Despite the fact that the FEHBP is one of the best health insurance programs in the nation, the PMG seems determined to continue his quest.
We are equally determined to make sure that it doesn’t happen.
Just the Facts, Please
The USPS claims it can run a postal-only health plan more efficiently than the OPM (Office of Personnel Management) runs the FEHBP, and that a USPS-only health plan would save the Postal Service money. He also says postal employees and retirees would benefit from lower premiums and still receive the same or better health benefits.
Really? There is no factual basis for any of these assertions.
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In testimony before the House Oversight Committee in March 2012, Walton Francis, the nation’s leading independent expert on the FEHBP, flatly rejected Donahoe’s claims. “Their proposal isn’t going to save money. It’s going to cost money,” he said.
The PMG’s plan also would “massively disrupt or destroy the FEHBP, the single most successful health insurance program ever operated by the United States government,” by pulling out one fourth of its enrollees, he said. “In destroying the FEHBP, the USPS would disrupt the health insurance of 8 million Americans, and breach statutory entitlement promises made to millions of federal retirees,” Francis testified.
“It hardly seems inappropriate to ask how, of all those insurance experts of both parties and both houses of Congress who have looked to the FEHBP as a model, only the USPS sees it as an albatross to be abolished,” he told lawmakers.
Francis also pointed out, “The USPS claims that FEHBP plan designs are somehow obsolete and do not match ‘best practices’ in the private sector or align ‘cost to value.’ This naturally raises the question as to how all those congressional leaders and experts of both parties could have been so badly fooled all these years. How is it that only the USPS has been able to detect that the FEHBP plans fail to provide health promotion and wellness benefits, and chronic condition and disease management programs? And of course the truth is that the FEHBP provides all these things and many more,” he said.
“The USPS has no professional or historical competence in insurance design or in analysis of health insurance reform models, and probably no real desire to gain these,” Francis pointed out.
It’s obvious that the PMG won’t let facts get in his way.
Doubts in Congress
Members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform also expressed doubts about the claims made by the PMG.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), the ranking Democrat on the panel, said at the March 2012 hearing, “I am quite skeptical that the Postal Service can or should manage its own health insurance system.
“I suspect that the achievable cost savings would come not from shrinking healthcare costs, but from shifting them onto employees. Postal employees would likely receive less coverage under a Postal Service plan and they would pay a greater share of their health bills. Postal annuitants would also pay more, as they would be faced with paying an increasing share of their healthcare from their fixed retirement incomes.”
Even committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA), who said he would probably support Donahoe’s proposal, told the postmaster general, “Let’s have no illusion. You’re just cost-shifting.” Rep. Issa is considered an ardent foe of postal workers, and has called for pay cuts, benefit reductions, limits on employees’ collective bargaining rights, and $3 billion worth of plant and post office closings.
Beware
But shifting costs on to postal employees wouldn’t be the only fallout from removing postal employees from the FEHBP.
Withdrawing postal employees from the FEHBP also would put the Postal Service another step closer to privatization.
Even though there is little support for removing postal workers and retirees from FEHBP as part of a postal reform bill, we must not fall into a false sense of security.
The APWU will vehemently oppose any plan to take postal employees or retirees out of FEHBP. Delegates to the APWU’s 2010 National Convention adopted a resolution that identified retaining the right to health benefits in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program as a top priority.
We will continue to work with other postal and federal unions and associations, along with our friends in Congress and other allies to ensure that it never happens.
Postal mgmt. can’t even run the USPS.
I’ll be damned if I’m going to allow them anywhere near my healthcare.
Robert doesn’t realize that it is the government who owes a
federal retiree the money by statue. It is a passed federal
law once you are receiving it that cannot be changed once you
are a retiree. They can probably do it before you retiree and
collect. Where the money comes from (Postal Service) has nothing
to do with it. Just like you would owe a bill for someone painting
your house. Where the money comes from it secondary to the fact
that it is owed. Reagan couldn’t convert CSRS people to FERS
when it was created for the same reason. Once Congress passes
something like that it is a Federal law. Its like painting a
crosswalk after someone walks across the street and then
accusing them of jaywalking. Only applies to people who come
AFTER it is in place.
If they are set on covering HC,,, let them start with new employees and it should be much too late to grab the retirees.
Robert f didn’t know that PO has fund 5B per year as ordered by law.
Didn’t the last APWU contract agree to negotiate if needed alternate means of health insurance?
This Greg Bell keep in mind is Guffey’s lackey and was all in on the giveaway, management dictated CBA!
Mr. Donuthole doesn’t know how to run the mail business in well situation, how can he run the insurance business?
THINK ITS A GOOD DEAL TALK TO ANY ONE WHO HAD HEALTH CARE WITH A CO. THAT FILED FOR BANKRUPTCY OR WENT UNDER FOR ANY REASON THE FIRST THING THAT GOES IS YOUR HEALTHCARE THEN YOUR PENSIONS ITS MITT ROMMNEY OUTFIT ONLY A DIFFERANT NAME
“former postman” is a liar…
USPS pays the “agency portion” of your FEHB monthly cost….they can force you in to THEIR program by not paying the monthly “agency portion”…. keep dreaming “postman”…. and keep voting for the baggers so that they can screw you even more.
I notice that his royal majesty King DONAHOE and his band of jesters have the option of staying in FEHBA under this latest Senate Postal deform bill. His royal majesty I see would not want his BERNARD MADOFF health plan to protect his family. He wants only the best for himself, not his slaves! He can shove his crap health plan up his ear, or any place he so desires!
This couldn’t apply to current retirees, only future ones. Once you
are retired OPM doesn’t care if you worked at the FAA, Veterans Hospitals ecc.
You are just a federal retiree period. They would have to take the whole
Federal Government off of FEHBP at that point. As for current workers who knows.
I hardly think if you retired in 1990 for example they are going to send you
a letter saying by the way you are no longer in Blue Cross etc.
Congress cannot pass a retroactive federal law according to the constitution.
That is why they couldn’t convert current employees from CSRS to FERS
when it was created in 1984.
simply tell darrell ‘the weasel’ issa that the postal unions will gladly get behind a new healthcare plan for postal employees as long as congress and their staff are forced to take the exact same thing! if the ‘new and better’ healthcare plan that donahoe is selling is actually cheaper and better for everyone (we know it ain’t) then issa should have no issue with this. on the other hand, if donahoe is a big liar, then congress would not want anything to do with donahoe’s healthcare plan for themselves. of course, we all know donahoe is lying. after all, donahoe has a history of lying about everything and anything. greg bell summed it up perfectly in the article when he spoke about donahoe’s ridiculous claim that his healthcare plan would be better and cheaper for postal employees than the current FEHBP. greg bell simply said, “there is no
factual basis for any of these (donahoes)
assertions.”
in fact, i strongly believe that every time donahoe speaks that this disclaimer should roll across the screen or be handed out to the audience: THERE IS NO FACTUAL BASIS FOR ANYTHING YOU ARE ABOUT TO HEAR FROM PMG PATRICK DONAHOE! this disclaimer just sums up perfectly the amount of trust or weight one should give to anything that
spews from donahoe’s piehole.
Cut Saturday!!!!! That’s all I got to say!!!!
Postal Reform:
The Postmaster General wants to Require a USPS Health Care Plan (Resolves Retiree Health Benefits Prefunding Issue)
1) What if you retire and go on medicare and your spouse is 15 years younger than you are, how is your spouse covered?
2) Suppose your spouse has a job with health benefits and wants to retire at 62, then be put on your insurance.
3) What if you have younger children and you are on medicare, how are the children covered?
4) What would the cost increase to the FEHB members that are not USPS employees be?