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Two House members are pressing the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for answers on how the agency plans to prevent future premium increases for the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program (FLTCIP).
In a letter to OPM from Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the lawmakers expressed concern about the possibility of another “premium price shocker” the next time there is a new contract.
“Our constituents cannot afford to wait until the end of the current contract to learn how the program might be altered or that they might face enormous premium increases,” wrote the representatives. “They must be able to plan and prepare.”
Last July, OPM announced that FLTCIP premiums would increase by an average 83 percent after it awarded a new, seven-year contract to John Hancock Life and Health Insurance. Some participants saw their premiums jump by as much as 126 percent.
NTEU immediately blasted the exorbitant increase and called for a congressional hearing on the matter. In November, a House subcommittee conducted a hearing and NTEU submitted testimony urging lawmakers to require that OPM assess the structure of FLTCIP and redesign it so that there would be reasonable premiums and inflation protection. At that hearing, OPM said it did not have a timeline for a proposed solution to the premium spikes. Months later, NTEU, lawmakers and plan participants are still waiting for an update.
NTEU worked hard to set up the program back in 2000. FLTCIP is now the nation’s largest employer-sponsored program of its kind, with 274,000 participants at the end of fiscal year 2015.