Postal Employees will pay average of 11.7 percent more for health insurance premiums | PostalReporter.com
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Postal Employees will pay average of 11.7 percent more for health insurance premiums

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Open Season Monday November 14, 2016 – Monday December 12, 2016.

Washington, DC – The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced today that premiums for the 2017 Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program will rise by an average of 4.4 percent. The FEHB rate increase is below projected increases for the national large group market.

The FEHB Open Season, which begins November 14th and runs through December 12th, will give Federal employees and retirees the opportunity to review the 2017 rates and benefits and change their health care coverage if they wish. The upcoming Open Season will also give employees and retirees the chance to select supplemental dental and/or vision coverage. In addition, Federal employees can elect to participate in a tax-deferred Flexible Spending Account (FSA) for health care and/or dependent care.

“The FEHB program is an important benefit for Federal employees to provide quality health care for themselves and their families,” said OPM Acting Director Beth Cobert. “I urge Federal employees, and annuitants to use this Open Season opportunity to carefully review their health care needs and to choose wisely among the plans and enrollment options available to them.”

OPM is dedicated to providing quality healthcare for the enrolled population.  By way of example, for several years, OPM has encouraged FEHB carriers to offer ABA benefits for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and we are pleased that all plans will offer clinically appropriate and medically necessary treatment for children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder in 2017.

Established in 1960, the FEHB Program is the largest employer-sponsored health benefits program in the United States.  On average, the Government pays about 70 percent of the health benefit premiums.  Approximately 85 percent of all Federal employees participate in the Program.

The OPM website provides a detailed breakdown on the FEHB Program premium rates and the FEDVIP rates.

Feds see rise in Health Premiums for 2017

U.S. Postal Service employees will pay an average of 11.7 percent more for their premiums — or $16.32 per paycheck — a slight decrease from the 2016 bump. Self-only enrollees will pay 11.5 percent more; self-plus-one, 12.9 percent; and self-and-family, 11.6 percent. The government share will increase by just 2.8 percent.

FEHBP will offer a total of 245 plans in 2017, seven fewer than it did in 2016. Every plan will offer self-only, self-plus-one and self-and-family enrollment options. The program added no new plans, while just five plans affecting 735 people will drop out of FEHBP next year. Fifteen plans will be offered to all participants regardless of where they live or work.

About 8.2 million federal employees, retirees and their family members enroll in FEHBP. More than 1.7 million participate in the federal dental benefit, while 1.2 million enroll in vision plans. Premiums for the dental benefit will increase 1.9 percent in 2017, and those for the vision plan, 6.3 percent.  Read more

Open Season Monday November 14, 2016 – Monday December 12, 2016.

Full Sets of Rate Charts

In addition to the biweekly and monthly premiums, you can also find the total premiums, the amount the government pays, and the change in your portion of the premium compared to last year. All FEHB plans will offer a Self Only, Self Plus One, and Self and Family enrollment types. Note: Non-Postal Rates apply to enrollees who are not employed by the U.S. Postal Service. U.S. Postal Rates apply to enrollees who are employed by the U.S. Postal Service.

HMO (Regional Plans with Specific Service Areas)

FFS (Fee-for-Service/Nationwide Plans)

The overall average Postal rate increases shown are based on the Postal contribution for Category 1. The Postal employee groups in Category 1 can change from year to year. Postal employees are encouraged to review their Plan brochures for information about how their plan changes for 2017 as soon as the brochures are posted to OPM’s website.

10 thoughts on “Postal Employees will pay average of 11.7 percent more for health insurance premiums”

  1. As long as management keeps getting ever increasing pay raises and performance (crack the whip) bonuses we should be ok. I’ll just stop feeding one of my kids.

  2. ive been retired for 3 yrs now. every year my jealt insurance, bc/bs, has gone up. $52 last year! however i have not seen a penny increase in my pension. what a bunch pf b.s.!

  3. You can complain all you want about Obama care, just wait till Mr. Bankruptcy takes office! his friends, The Heritage Foundation is crying how the Postal employees health care is subsidized by the tax payer by 75 percent, and how awful that Federal employees retirement and health care is “guaranteed by law” Their is nothing wrong, in their minds, of having the tax payer subsidizing business ,parents or foreign governments. a business pays an employee as little as possible so the tax payer in turn pays for the earned income tax credit, welfare, food stamps, Medicaid. And when a child comes along, the tax payer must pay taxes for education, school sports, transpiration, subsidized lunch. And as for foreign governments, Congress just approved giving Israel38 billion in military aid! The same country that killed 32 sailors and wounded 144 on 8 June 1967. Israel doesn’t pay for their defense, the American tax payer does. While the Heritage Foundation thinks that the tax payer “subsidizes” the Federal employee and that is just awful, there is nothing wrong with the Federal employee subsidizing every body else!

  4. I’m sure our next contract will offset the cost. I mean 1% and the Cola’s we don’t usually get will be more than enough to help us out. We can sure count on our union. Go nalc!

  8. Screw the federal workers again. First make us fund retirement funds for the next 75 years so Congress can and does pilfer from it for pork projects at will. Make us drive death traps and announce it will be eight or more years before those damn LLV’s will be replaced. Do basically nothing about the hacking of the USPS computer network. Offer no help except for a free download that has already expired. Continue to screw with the unions and openly and brazenly violate the terms of the contracts.
    I’m glad I’m out shortly. If Donald Trump gets in, we will be in a world of hurt, no thanks to the morons who will vote for this rabid SOB.

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