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Washington - U.S. Representative Maurice Hinchey (NY-22) today released a letter he and three neighboring congressmen sent to Kay Coles James, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). U.S. Representatives Sherwood Boehlert (NY-24), Amo Houghton (NY-29) and John McHugh (NY-23) joined Hinchey in signing the letter to James, protesting the dramatic increase in health insurance premiums faced by federal and postal employees and retirees in central New York.
"Everyone understands that under our current health care system, costs will rise periodically," said Hinchey. "But the increase faced by these New Yorkers is outrageous. Some families are seeing their premiums nearly triple. This affects over 16,000 people in central New York. At a time when our region desperately needs healthy consumer spending, this huge bite out of that many family budgets is most unwelcome. Moreover, some people will have to drop their health care coverage entirely."
Beginning this month, Aetna-U.S. Healthcare and Univera Health Care are no longer available through the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program in central New York. This leaves HMO Blue as the only health maintenance organization (HMO) plan available in seven upstate New York counties. Six additional counties in the region are also seeing sharply higher HMO premiums because of reduced consumer choice. There are 16,090 FEHB enrollees in the 13 counties.
While HMO premiums under FEHB are increasing nationwide, the increase in central New York far exceeds the norm. Nationally, FEHB premiums are rising 13.6 percent. In central New York, some FEHB enrollees have had their premiums increased 169 percent.
In the letter to Coles, Hinchey and his colleagues requested additional information about the departure of Aetna-U.S. Healthcare and Univera from FEHB and about OPM's efforts to bring them back into the program or to replace them with other HMOs. The letter also urged James to reopen negotiations with current FEHB providers to secure more reasonable premiums. |
