Apwu133 Posted July 4, 2024 Posted July 4, 2024 POSTAL SERVICE HEALTH BENEFITS (PSHB): This is Kayla “Cuppy” Reynolds, your APWU Health Plan Representative and Tour 1 Steward, with some information about the changes coming to the health plans in 2025. Currently both the APWU Consumer Driven Option (CDO) and High Option (HO) have been conditionally approved based on benefits and rate negotiation over the summer. This negotiation normally takes place every summer and we should know what the rates and benefits will be in October of 2024. Rates and benefits change a little nearly every year. Normally the APWU Health Plan will have this information before the Open Season Seminar, which is occurring October 16 – 20, 2024. Current plan benefits and information are available at apwuhp.com All of the Health Plans currently available to Postal Service Employees will be going through this process, and the enrollment codes will be changing. Currently if you go to OPM.gov you can look at what plans should be available during open enrollment. To do this, you need to go to the “insurance” heading and select the “FEHB Plan Comparison Tool” and after inputting your zip code select “Federal & U. S. Postal Service (USPS) Employee “. Keep in mind that the rates you will see displayed are for the current year, NOT for 2025. Those rates are renegotiated every year, for all plans, not just the APWU health plans. Remember that the Union has currently negotiated for the USPS to pay 95% of the premium costs for the APWU CDO and that the premiums listed would be for non-union members, Postal Support Employees, or newly Career employees who have not had a Federal Employee Health Benefit plan for 1 year yet. This is the ONLY Health Plan that offers that type of reduction, and is one of your many benefits of being an APWU member. For instance, a career employee who paying for the Self Only APWU CDO plan pays only $15.36 in a premiums, whereas a non-member would pay $76.78. That is a difference of $61.42 each pay period, which over the course of the month, is nearly four times what they would pay in Union dues! Union dues for our local for a career employee are currently $34.11 per pay period. As a reminder, the USPS Health Benefit Plan for Postal Support Employees is NOT a Federal Employee Health Plan. PSEs are eligible to enroll in the APWU CDO after one year of employment with the Postal Service. In their first year of employment they are only eligible for the USPS plan, currently administrated by BlueCross BlueShield. Once they hit one year, they are only eligible for either that plan, or the APWU CDO plan. Once career, they no longer qualify for the USPS Health Benefit Plan and MUST choose one of the other Health Plansavailable to career employees, otherwise they will lose coverage 30 days after being converted. For Retirees or those with questions about Medicare, please check keepingposted.org for helpful links, articles and online recordings. You can also find contact information for retirees. Open Season will occur November 11 – December 9, 2024, and Health Nurse Kelley Moore has confirmed that local Health Fairs will be occurring November 4 – 8, 2024. As more information is made available to us, we will be sure to keep the membership updated!
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