100,000 Federal Employees Uninsured

Say what?

“The American people should have access to the same array of health care choices and benefits as the senators and representatives they elect,” Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said as she introduced her health care plan last month.


Expand the federal employees plan. How will that help?

Seems others have the same question.

While health policy experts acknowledge that the federal employees’ program could be a workable way to reach some of the uninsured, they also say there is nothing about it that would help address what they see as an underlying reason for the growing numbers of uninsured: the nation’s runaway medical costs. And without major changes, they say, the model would be sharply limited in achieving the goal of universal coverage for all Americans.

Controlling medical inflation is the elephant in the room that no one wants to acknowledge.

So how well does the plan work for federal employees?

at least 100,000 federal workers — at least 5 percent of the active work force — do not have health insurance.

So 100,000 federal employees do not have health insurance. Why?

In many cases, according to the union that represents the workers, they consider even the cheapest options within the federal plan unaffordable. The lowest-priced family coverage offered by Blue Cross, for example, costs the employee about $2,400 a year.

$200 per month for family coverage is too much?

What kind of plan can you get for $200 per month? Just look.

I found plans in GA ranging from $136 to $245 for family coverage. These are outstanding values.

Federal employees are paid according to published pay grades. Grade 1 is a minimum of $16,016 (in 2005) while Grade 15 is $89,625.

In March 2005, the average earnings for full-time workers paid under the General Schedule were $61,735.

That's a pretty good salary.

Perhaps they need to consider S-CHIP and let the taxpayers further subsidize their coverage . . .

Don't get me started.