Should they be prepared to cheer or duck?

Federal workers, postal employees and retirees may (or may not) have a lot riding in the health care reform proposals taking shape on Capitol Hill. Both as health plan consumers and ordinary taxpayers.

It's the "may" part that worries many people, including the coalition of unions, and groups representing managers, executives and the huge number of federal retirees.

First the good news:

The House-passed health care reform bill would mandate that family plans (including the federal FEHBP program) cover dependent children until age 26. At present, the cut-off limit for eligibility in the vast majority of plans is 22. That's the good news. Lobbyists representing feds and retirees say that's a jewel-in-the-crown feature and it is part of the House proposal.

The problem, if it happens, is what's in the version that the Senate is still working on. And after that, what happens when the Senate and House go to conference.

Some observers are concerned that in the last-minute drive to finish work on this must-pass health care reform plan that amendments may be approved by the Senate, or resurface in the Senate-House conference, that could do damage to the FEHBP proposals.

They include:

• An amendment that would force all federal workers and retirees to leave the FEHBP and join one of the exchanges or public options that are being planned. Although that idea was dropped by the Senate, it could come back later in the process.

• A proposal outlined here earlier to put currently uninsured, low-income Americans into the FEHBP. Opponents fear that unless those people were put in a separate risk pool (rather than as part of the FEHBP risk pool) it would drive premiums up for nearly everybody. Again this is currently not in the Senate proposal. But it could come back in the late stages of the game.

• Slap a special tax on high-benefit health plans if their total cost was $8,000 for individuals or $21,000 per year for a family plan. That plan, reported here in October would not go into effect until 2013. Experts on the federal health program say that assuming an annual medical inflation rate of 8 percent (which is relatively modest) that would put some of the so-called Cadillac plans in the FEHBP into the category of plans that would be hit by an excise tax. The cost of that tax, like most other taxes, would be largely passed on to premium-payers.

A lobbyist who has spent most of the session watching health care reform take shape said "the situation is that a lot of people don't understand all of what's in the various proposals," including members of Congress who are working on it. The lobbyist said that the ramifications of some of the earlier proposals, which were dropped but could come back, just "aren't known or understood."

Which is why people who care, even if they don't understand what's happening, are nervously watching the calendar as the deadline for final action approaches.

Open Season Update

Be sure to listen in today at 10 a.m. for our Your Turn with Mike Causey radio show. FEHBP expert Walton Francis will explain why shopping around during the current open season is an absolute must.

To reach me: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com

Nearly Useless Factoid
by Suzanne Kubota

The Mona Lisa used to have eyebrows.

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