Friday, September 26, 2008 Health
Care Marketplace
Office of Personnel Management Estimates Premiums
for Federal Employees Will Increase by 8% in 2009
The Office of Personnel Management on Thursday announced that
federal employees in 2009 will have to pay on average about 8% more for
their health insurance premiums, the Washington Post reports. The projected
increase is significantly higher than the 2.9% increase in 2008 and the
2.3% increase in 2007.
According to the Post, there
are about eight million federal employees, retirees and dependents who
have about 269 health plans from which to choose, most of which are
limited by region or employee groups. The about 60% of federal employees
who are enrolled in Blue Cross
and Blue Shield plans will on average experience a 13% increase in
premium rates, according to the Post.
Federal workers
enrolled in individual coverage, on average, will pay $4.83 more per
biweekly pay period and those enrolled in family coverage will pay $11.12
more per pay period.
Comments
Nancy Kichak, associate director for strategic
human resources policy at OPM, said that the agency tried to keep premium
rates as low as possible to maintain employee benefits and the stability
of its health insurance program. Kichak said, "We worked very hard to
contain premium costs, and we were more successful with some health plans
than with others." She cited "the cost of services" and
higher-than-expected health care costs for next year's large increase. She
added that utilization of health care services, technology and medical
inflation also were contributing factors.
Jena Estes, vice
president of federal employment programs for BCBS, said that the rise in
costs in part was because of a relatively slow shift among its members to
cheaper generic medications. Estes said that BCBS would begin to offer
incentives, such as pharmacy discounts and mail-order benefits, to
encourage more members to use generic drugs.
Colleen Kelley,
president of the National
Treasury Employees Union, said, "It is very discouraging to see
average increases of this magnitude ... particularly given the bargaining
power OPM should be able to exercise as manager of the nation's largest
group health plan" (Davidson, Washington Post, 9/26).