Retiree News
NARFE Update. (For more on NARFE go to www.narfe.org)
NARFE stands for the National Association of Retired
Employees
If you have not yet joined your state online service to
receive important local e-mail messages, please contact
your chapter president or your state NARFE-net coordinator.
They will be happy to assist with your enrollment.
This NARFE Legislative Hotline, number 458, was released
Thursday, January 29th. NARFE members have generated nearly
3 thousand messages to President Bush urging him to protect
the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) from
a poison pill masquerading as high deductible catastrophic
coverage plans in conjunction with Health Savings Accounts.
The next Hotline is set for Friday, February 6th, but an
earlier edition will be provided if the Bush Administration
budget, scheduled to be sent to Capitol Hill on Monday,
February 2nd, requires instant action. (580 words, 3:55).
Provisions in the recently enacted Medicare revision law
(P.L.#108-173), unrelated to either Medicare or prescription
drug coverage,expand and rename Medical Savings Accounts
(MSAs) as "Health Savings Accounts" (HSAs). Such
Health Savings Accounts are only available topersons who
are enrolled in high deductible catastrophic coverage plans.
While the new law does not mandate such plans in the Federal
Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), the Office of
Personnel Management (OPM) announced on December 22 that
they will determine if the agency has the authority to offer
such plans in FEHBP.
The high deductible/catastrophic insurance plans coupled
with Health Savings Accounts are designed to disaggregate
the 9 million current members of the FEHBP risk pool, none
of whom seek this fools gold. HSAs could be a rational gamble
for healthier enrollees since they are rewarded with tax-free
cash balances in subsequent years if they don'tuse doctor
or hospital services. The opposite is true for less healthy
persons, whose potential out-of-pocket costs would be in
the thousands of dollars if they joined an HSA. As a result,
healthy individuals are siphoned into the new option and
premiums in the comprehensive plans they left must be increased
in response and/or benefits reduced. Research by nonpartisan
experts indicate that premiums for coverage under a traditional
health insurance policy could at least double, depending
on the degree of adverse selection that HSAs may trigger
in the insurance market.
NARFE is concerned that HSAs could circumvent the fundamental
principles of group health insurance by dividing healthy
and sick persons into different coverage options. The nonpartisan
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says that legislation
introduced in the 105th Congress to make MSAs available
in the FEHBP would cost taxpayers nearly $1 billion over
five years.
For these reasons, NARFE has historically opposed adding
MSAs - and now Health Savings Accounts -- to the FEHBP.
OPM's December 22 announcement means that they may impose
HSAs on the FEHBP through administrative means. But OPM
could have second thoughts if a large and ever increasing
number of NARFE members tell the Administration and their
lawmakers that adding HSAs to the FEHBP is a bad idea.
Please visit the Legislative Action Center to send such
an e-mail
message to President Bush, your own Representative and both
Senators.
Use the following link to access this Action Alert on our
Legislative Action Center http://capwiz.com/narfe/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=4669346
.
To date, 2,957 NARFE activists have already sent the President
NARFE's e-mail message opposing adding high deductible/
catastrophic plans with HSAs to our FEHBP. More are needed.
Thank you for using the Hotline. This weekly legislative
Hotline will
continue to be available to telephone callers (703/838-7780
or toll free at 1-877-217-8234), posted for NARFE members
at www.narfe.org
and broadcast e-mail to GEMS listed addresses (now over
37,000). This policy allows each registered e-mail addressee
to choose to read each message, delete each or pick and
choose. Each delivery device is a service of the National
Association of Retired Federal Employees.
