Employees Face Big Hike in Health-Care Costs

By Steve Vogel
The Washington Post
Federal Diary
September 30, 2009

Employees enrolled in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program will pay an average 8.8 percent more in health-care costs, according to figures released by the Office of Personnel Management.

Blue Cross Blue Shield rates will increase 15 percent for self-only coverage and 12 percent for family coverage, the company said. Enrollees will have to pay more thanks to a wider range of benefits and the company’s wide network of providers, said Jena Estes, vice president of Blue Cross Blue Shield’s federal employee program.

“We have a very strong commitment to managing the costs and managing that trend. You’ll see a real strong focus on coordinating the care and managing the total care,” Estes said.

“This is an enormous increase that erodes federal employees’ standard of living,” Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said in a statement.

The American Federation of Government Employees expressed “grave concern” at the news. “FEHBP is getting more and more unaffordable for more people,” said Jacqueline Simon, AFGE public policy director.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/29/AR2009092903539.html

Members of Congress are promising reform that will give us choices of coverage, just like they have in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). They will do this by establishing an FEHBP-like insurance exchange for the purchase of health plans.

Blue Cross Blue Shield is the most popular program selected by federal employees. They promise to continue with their “very strong commitment to managing the costs.” And how well are they doing? This year’s rate increases are 15 percent for individuals and 12 percent for families.

FEHBP, as an example of an insurance exchange, is proof that a financing system based on private insurance plans is an obsolete model that “is getting more and more unaffordable for more people.” Yet Congress is moving forward with this model.

What about a government financing system? At the Senate Finance markup yesterday, when asked by Sen. Chuck Schumer if Medicare is a good program, Sen. Chuck Grassley replied, “I think that Medicare is part of the social fabric of America.” But then he said that government is not a fair competitor, “it’s a predator.”

Ask federal employees insured by Blue Cross Blue Shield whom they think the predator is. Then ask Medicare beneficiaries.

Medicare should be a part of the social fabric that weaves all of us into its egalitarian patterns, forming an indestructible fabric based on social solidarity.