Enrollment Might Not Be Good Deal, Says Report

The CRS report said that if a separate risk pool were created, “premiums for the new group could potentially be higher than premiums for the existing federal pool, because the new pool wouldn’t have the advantage of spreading the risk across 8.2 million people. As a result, premiums for the expanded FEHB might not be significantly less expensive than other individual or small group options available in the market today. On the other hand, if risk were spread across the entire group of new enrollees, essentially developing a new, large group entity, then premiums could be less than these entities could find on their own. The key advantage of the expanded FEHB might be that it offered this new group availability, choice and a guarantee that the products being purchased (the same offered to federal employees, annuitants and Members of Congress) included a reasonable set of benefits.” Currently, there are no active proposals to open the FEHB doors.