By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
The Washington Post
December 6, 2009
You should get the same health insurance deal that members of Congress get. That was the gist of President Barack Obama’s message as he tried to drum up enthusiasm for his health care overhaul.
Government workers and members of Congress belong to the nation’s largest employer-sponsored health plan, covering 8 million employees, dependents and retirees.
“We estimate there are about 250,000 federal employees who are uninsured. They’re eligible, but they can’t afford the premiums,” said Jacqueline Simon, policy director for the American Federation of Government Employees.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/06/AR2009120601136.html
And…
New Government-Run Health Proposal Eyed
Democrats, in Search of Compromise, Explore Federal Employee Plan as a Model
By Greg Hitt And Janet Adamy
The Wall Street Journal
December 7, 2009
Democrats on both sides of the issue who were assigned by Sen. Reid to find a compromise were nearing agreement on an alternative that would empower the government’s Office of Personnel Management to run a new national health plan, congressional aides said. The office already oversees the federal employee health plan, and administration officials have pointed to it as an example of how the government can successfully run a health-insurance program.
Under the proposal, the office would negotiate terms of the plan with private insurers, and contract with nonprofit entities set up by the private sector to run the program, aides said.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126004745673278523.html
And…
Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP)
American Federation of Government Employees
February 9, 2009
FEHBP has both structural and political flaws.
Those who must rely upon FEHBP for health insurance know its flaws well, and consider it anything but a model.
An estimated quarter of a million federal workers and their families are uninsured because FEHBP premiums are unaffordable to them on their modest federal salaries. The continued cost-shifting only increases the ranks of uninsured and underinsured Americans.
http://www.afge.org/index.cfm?page=2009ConferenceIssuePapers&Fuse=Content&ContentID=1742
Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
Why shouldn’t we all have the same insurance that members of Congress have? They and all other federal employees are covered by the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), an exchange of private health plans from which they can choose their coverage.
The FEHBP plans share many of the problems found in private health plans marketed to non-government employers. Simply the fact that a quarter million federal workers and their families remain uninsured, though eligible for FEHBP, demonstrates that it is a flawed program that should be rejected as a model for reform.
For those who say that subsidies would make the difference, these federal employees have already been offered subsidies in the form of the federal employer contribution to their premiums, yet they still can’t afford their share of the premium. Besides, because insurance is available through their employment, they would not be eligible for the subsidized exchange plans anyway.
So what is Congress doing? Because of the political impasse over a public plan to be offered as an option to private plans within the insurance exchange, senators are currently advocating for the compromise of a separate exchange of private plans modeled on FEHBP. This model allegedly would satisfy the moderates opposed to the public option because it would be limited to private, non-profit insurers, and allegedly would satisfy the progressives because they could claim that it’s like the government insurance that members of Congress have. Of course there’s nothing government about it.
What is more ridiculous is the structure of this phony public option. It would establish an exchange of private insurance plans within an exchange of private insurance plans with a market of private insurance plans outside of the exchanges. What insurer is going to compete against its successful plans on the open market by offering competing plans in the insurance exchange and then competing with its plans in the exchange by offering plans in the exchange within the exchange?
Besides, how many truly dominant insurers are there? They constitute an oligopoly. Just as they play by their own market rules now, they will continue to do so even if modified by guaranteed issue or whatever.
Ask those 250,000 uninsured federal workers who were promised the coverage that members of Congress have what they think about FEHBP. Then ask them if they would like to have Medicare paid for by equitable taxes they can afford rather than by premiums they can’t afford. Then ask them to march on Congress!