Home Media Center News Releases

Washington, D.C.—Given the continuing financial demands generated on federal workers and their families by health care costs and the need for a comprehensive benefits package, a two-year wait for implementation of an important new health benefit is “a disappointing delay,” the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees said today.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) expressed her disappointment at the announcement by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that a new dental and vision program would not be available to federal workers, retirees and their families until December 2006. The program, which was strongly supported by NTEU, was authorized by Congress in December 2004 and was initially expected to be put in place within one year.

To provide federal employees with additional options for dental insurance, NTEU recently introduced two new dental plan options through MetLife, available to NTEU members. A comprehensive plan which provides generous coverage and a co-pay plan which includes a co-pay but has lower monthly premiums.

“NTEU is introducing these group plans to give our members more choices when it comes to their health care coverage,” said President Kelley. “We know that dental insurance is important to our members and we are trying to fill a void that currently exists in the federal government’s standard benefits package.”

Under the dental-vision legislation, the benefits will be outside the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) and employees will pay the entire cost, although they should enjoy lower group rates as a result of the large purchasing power of the government given the potential size of the enrollee population.

Federal employees will, in addition, be able to pay those costs using pretax dollars through the government’s premium conversion program—a benefit that was instituted at NTEU’s behest and under which employees can generate substantial savings on health care costs.

“The importance of the benefit, the availability of lower group rates and the fact that premium conversion will allow those who enroll to use pretax dollars to pay for it all dictate the necessity of getting this program running as soon as possible,” President Kelley said. “The two-year lag between enactment of the legislation and implementation of the program is very disappointing.”

OPM said it will tie the initial dental-vision plan open season to the 2006 FEHB and Flexible Spending Account (FSA) program open seasons, all of which are set to run from mid-November to mid-December 2006.

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents 150,000 federal employees in 30 federal agencies and departments.