The administration also plans to seek legislation that would
allow Blue Cross/Blue Shield–the largest carrier in the Federal
Employees Health Benefits program–to offer a third option,
presumably a high deductible plan with a health savings account
arrangement. That is part of a push for such plans that is a
theme of the administration’s recently released fiscal 2007
budget in general. The budget assumes that offering such an
option would save the government $1.1 billion over five years
and $3.4 billion over 10 years–around 5 percent of what the
government pays toward FEHB–assuming that enrollees would
move from a higher cost plans. “This proposal supports the
administration’s policy to give individuals greater control
over their health insurance options and is a step towards
restraining health care inflation in the FEHB,” a budget
justification document says. The administration also says it
will “identify options for increasing price competition among
health plans offered to federal employees and retirees”–in the
past, that has meant encouraging alternative plan designs–and
that it will “work with stakeholders to better coordinate the
Medicare and FEHB programs and follow the best practices from
the private sector to ensure high quality, cost-conscious
choices for retirees.”
