Mike Causey

Dodging a $2,000 FEHBP Premium Bullet

If you play your cards wrong, or do nothing during the current health insurance hunting season, you could wind up paying $2000, more than you have to in health ...

Federal News Network Staff

November 10, 2010 4:00 am

3 min read

Picking the right health plan for 2011 could save a federal family $1,000 to $2,000 in premiums and out of pocket payments, according to Checkbook’s Guide to Health Plans for Federal Employees. But with 20 plans, and dozens of options to choose from, which plan is the right plan for you?

The health insurance hunting season for federal workers, retirees and qualified survivors began Monday and ends Dec. 13. If you are like most people you will do nothing and stick with your current plan. But doing nothing by sticking with the same plan year after year could be a big mistake, especially if premiums are going up substantially and or benefits are being changed or reduced.

Walton Francis, who writes the Guide, says that federal workers and retirees shouldn’t fixate on premiums alone. What they need to consider are their likely health needs next year and get a plan with good catastrophic coverage that will limit their maximum out-of-pocket costs. That and a plan that includes your doctor. Going outside the network of your health plan can be very costly.

Studies have shown that younger, healthier and more consumer-savvy feds move around the most each open season, taking advantage of low-premium high deductible health plans where they actually make and bank money. By contrast retirees tend to stick with the same plan they’ve been under since they left government.

The situation is even trickier this year for retirees. That’s because they will not be getting any cost of living adjustment in 2011. And they didn’t get one this year either. So annuities will remain flat while premiums – driven by always higher health care costs – continue to rise year after year.

So what’s the best buy for you and yours? You have lots of help available and the price is right. Over the next few weeks we’ll have a series of columns listing best buys for singles, couples, big families, retirees with and without Medicare and for mixed-marriages where one spouse works for Uncle Sam and the other is in the private sector.

Many federal agencies – because they pay the lion’s share of your health premiums – have subscribed to Checkbooks on-line guide to health plans. To see if your agency is providing this free-to-you service, click here: http://www.checkbook.org/newhig2/more.cfm. If not you can actually buy the guide ($9.95) by going to www.guidetohealthplans.org.

And today, at 10 a.m., Francis will be my guest on our Your Turn with Mike Causey radio show. That’s 10 to 11 a.m. EST. Our local DC area call letters are WFED 1500 AM. Or you can listen anywhere on the internet at www.federalnewsradio.com. If you can’t listen at the office, the shows are archived on our home page so you can listen anytime, anywhere. If you have questions you can call in during the show at 202.465.3080 or e-mail questions to: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com.

Once A Marine!

Today is the 235th birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Over the centuries there have been hundreds of thousands of active, retired and former Marines. But there are no ex-Marines, Semper Fi!!!

To reach me: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com

Nearly Useless Factoid
by Suzanne Kubota

Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev has logged 803 total days in space – about two years, two and a half months-more than anyone else in history.

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