If the pitter-patter of little feet in your attic or basement comes not from squirrels or mice but from your still-in-college or unemployed grown children, then there is cause to rejoice. At least maybe a little bit.
The Senate is working on legislation that would require all private health plans in the future to cover dependent children up to age 26. Most health plans — including those in the massive Federal Employee Health Benefits Program — now limit dependent coverage in family health plans to children up to age 22.
In the FEHBP, which covers a huge swath of the Washington-Baltimore area general population, family health premiums are the same in each plan whether that family has no children or 10 of them. But all of those plans drop coverage for children when they turn 22.
Insiders say the House leadership has promised lobbyists that something similar will be included in a must-pass bill that will dovetail with what the Senate is planning.
Currently, only one of the hundreds of plans in the FEHBP program offers coverage for dependents past age 22. That’s the SAMBA plan once limited to federal law enforcement personnel but now open to all federal and postal workers.
Coverage for older dependents has become a major issue for many households. Many young adults are losing their jobs or returning home from college when their parents can no longer afford to keep up with the tuition bills.
Look for the age extension to be attached to some must-pass bill worked up by the House.
When would such coverage start? Experts say it is unlikely that it would take effect until after 2010. But given the drive (and confusion) caused by the full-court press for health care reform and the rapidly shrinking legislative calendar, anything could happen.
$250 payments for retirees
The plan to give all Social Security retirees — and most federal retirees — a one-shot $250 payment next year is gathering steam. The White House has endorsed the proposal which, while small for individuals, would cost taxpayers $13 billion (with a “b”).
Congress-watchers say the proposal has a good chance of passage because retirees will not be getting an inflation adjustment in January and 2010 is an election year. Alienating the 65-and-over crowd — one in six Americans receives a Social Security benefit — is the political equivalent of touching Metro’s third (hot) rail.
If the payments fly, as expected, they would work like this: 49 million people would get the one-time $250 payment in their monthly benefit check or, perhaps for maximum political effect, in a separate payment. Another 5 million people would get it in their Supplemental Security Income benefits, as would 2 million who receive veterans’ benefits. Half a million people under the Railroad Retirement System would also qualify.
The $250 payments would also go to the vast majority of federal workers (who qualify for Social Security) as part of their regular Social Security benefit payment. That includes most federal-postal retirees and their survivors.
For the 300,000 retired feds who do not get any Social Security benefit, the $250 would come in the form of a tax credit they could take for the 2010 tax year. Those retirees already qualify for a $250 tax credit because of the stimulus payment earlier this year.
Many retirees, perhaps most, welcome the idea of a $250 payment. They are confused and upset because, for the first time since the inflation-adjustment program started, there will not be a January cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security recipients. Some believe the government — which keeps tabs on inflation via the Consumer Price Index — missed the boat or cooked the books. They claim just about everything costs more than it did a year ago, despite data which show that prices dropped or were flat for most of the past 12 months.
But some retirees see it another way. They think the $250 payment is an insult or, as one IRS worker in Kansas City put it, “a bribe, and a cheap bribe at that. At a time of deflation,” he said, “and with a 2 percent federal pay raise coming in January, how can we justify giving people an inflation-adjustment absent actual inflation?”
Marc Harris, a former Washington-area fed now retired in Florida, says the $250 payment — if and when it comes — will be welcome. He’s figured out that the money will cover his share of the 2010 annual premium increase in his BlueCross BlueShield plan.
For retirees living on the edge, he said, it’s considerably better than nothing.
• Mike Causey’s Federal Report runs Mondays. Contact him at mcausey@federalnewsradio.com or 202/895-5132.
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