Fedweek

Also worth a close look for many of those currently with family coverage is the new self plus one option. That option allows for coverage of the enrollee plus one additional person who is eligible as a family member—of the enrollee’s choosing, if there is more than one. In most cases there would be a saving from switching to that option from family coverage, but in some plans the difference in enrollee premiums is negligible, and in some cases it’s even higher for self plus one. That’s due to a quirk in how the premium sharing formula works in certain circumstances. Because it anticipates that some family enrollees with only one family member might stick with family enrollments during the open season—out of inertia or confusion—and then come to regret it, OPM will allow a limited “special enrollment period” running the month of February. During that period, the only allowable change will be for active employees who pay their premiums with pretax money (as almost all do) to lower from family to self plus one enrollment within the same plan. That period will not apply to retirees since they can decrease their enrollment type within a plan at any time.