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Washington, D.C.—A Senate bill that would raise the portion the government pays of federal employee health care costs to an average 80 percent level that is common in the private sector would be “an important and useful tool” in helping federal recruitment and retention efforts, the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers said today. At present, the government pays an average of 72 percent of health care premiums.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said NTEU strongly supports legislation introduced today by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) that would boost the government’s share of Federal Employee Health Benefit (FEHB) Program costs to 80 percent.

The Mikulski legislation mirrors a bipartisan House proposal, H.R. 1307, introduced last year by Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), and supported by NTEU. “Passage of these bills is a vital part of a package of steps that must be taken—including providing a fair pay raise for federal workers—if the government is to have any chance of recruiting and retaining the quality employees the public demands,” the NTEU leader said.

Rising health insurance costs have hit both the private sector and state and local governments, President Kelley said, but, unlike the federal government, the responses of these employers has been to increase their share of premium costs. “Other employers appear to understand far better than the federal government that making health care more affordable is important in attracting and keeping workers,” she said.

The NTEU leader noted that private sector employers most often cite recruitment and retention as one of the principal reasons they absorb rising health insurance premiums, sometimes paying as much as 90 or even 100 percent of the cost.

The Mikulski and Hoyer bills are particularly important, the NTEU leader said, in the wake of continuing sharp annual increases in the cost of FEHB premiums, which are far outpacing pay raises for federal employees. The average increase for FEHB plans in 2002, she noted, was 13 percent—coming on top of increases of 10.5 percent, 9.3 percent and 9.5 percent over the previous three years.

FEHB is the nation’s largest employer-sponsored health insurance plan, providing coverage for some nine million federal employees, retirees and their families.

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents some 150,000 employees in 25 agencies and departments.