Health insurance premiums going up for federal employees, retirees

Federal employees and retirees will be forking over more cash in 2020 for their health coverage, with premiums expected to increase 5.6 percent.

There will also be a wider choice of plans available, according to the government, the Washington Post reports. Officials have characterized the increase in premiums as in line with what other large employers expect for next year: increases ranging from 4.5 to 6.5 percent. And recent increases in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, the Post added, are also in the same ballpark, “although well above the 1.5 percent [increase] for 2019.”

Related: Premiums for employer-sponsored health care now exceed $20,000 for families

“We are subject to the same market forces and major drivers of costs as those seen in the commercial market,” Laurie Bodenheimer, the Office of Personnel Management’s acting director for health care and insurance said in a call with reporters. “Among those are pharmacy spending overall, pharmacy spending on specialty drugs, chronic illness costs, and medical technology and innovation overall.”

In 2020 employees will have a choice of 14 more plans than in 2019, for a grand total of 279. Two regional health maintenance organizations have dropped out, leaving 257 HMOs, 20 of them based in the D.C. area. The rest, nationally, are fee-for-service plans; a number of them restrict eligibility.

Covering more than 2.1 million federal workers, 1.9 million retirees and 4.1 million family members, the FEHBP is the biggest employer-sponsored health insurance program in the country. The government pays an average of 70 percent of the premiums, although the U.S. Postal Service pays more under union contracts. According to the report, “The overall average increase was 4 percent, but more of the cost fell on enrollees because of caps on the government share.”

Enrollees are encouraged to participate in wellness programs as the OPM tries to cut costs that way, as well as boosting telehealth options and cutting prescription drug spending. In addition, Medicare Part B will become the first payer for retirees with both that coverage and FEHBP insurance.

Premiums rose not only because of overall health care cost inflation, but also thanks to the return of the health insurance providers fee surtax under the Affordable Care Act, which affects many FEHBP plans. According to officials, that surtax had been suspended for 2019 but its return raised premiums by about two additional percentage points.

The report quoted American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox Sr. saying in a statement, “The Trump administration has failed to do its job of providing affordable health insurance to its workforce. Shifting more health care costs onto federal workers and retirees will force growing numbers to choose between keeping their health insurance or paying for rent and other costs of daily living.”

Enrollees also pay the entire premium for the separate Federal Dental and Vision Insurance Program. Premiums on dental providers are rising by an average of 5.6 percent, while for vision plan providers the increase is an average of 1.5 percent.