Union Chief Slams 'Remarkably High' Increase in Health Care Premiums
AFGE President Everett Kelly forecasts higher premiums may worsen the "widespread staffing crises."
Insurance premiums for the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program will jump an average of 8.7% in 2023, the largest increase in more than a decade. When OPM released the new rates last week, agency officials cited the increased use of healthcare services as the reason for the higher costs.
Following the announcement, Everett Kelly, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, strongly condemned the projected cost increases, noting they could exacerbate "widespread staffing crises."
"Among the largest, most popular plans, rates are going up even faster," Kelly stated in a press release. "For a single employee on the popular Blue Cross/Blue Shield Standard plan, that employee will see an 11.7% increase. If that employee has a family, they'll see their premium go up by 10.7% this year."
The increased premiums paired with "years of paltry pay increases" could push current and prospective federal workers to the private sector, where they can be paid more, Kelly stated, also citing a study by the Federal Salary Council that showed federal employees' pay lags 22.47% behind employees in the private sector.
"If the government continues to squeeze federal employees in a vice with low pay on one side and out-of-control health care costs on the other, we will continue to see widespread staffing crises and the attendant complications as government struggles to recruit and retain talented employees who can get a better deal in the private sector," Kelly stated.
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