Open Season is Here

(This article first appeared in the November December 2017 issue of the American Postal Worker magazine)

By Health Plan Director John Marcotte 

Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Open Season is upon us and I am proud to report that the APWU Health Plan is bucking the trend of ever increasing premiums by offering extremely small premium increases of less than a dollar for most plans and premium decreases for some.

For those of us that trust our families’ health insurances needs to the APWU Health Plan, this is welcome news. For those of you that don’t, you need to look at getting comprehensive health care at the most affordable price and switch to the APWU Health Plan this Open Season.

The APWU Health Plan was founded by postal employees to serve postal employees, not stockholders or investors. What does this mean for you? That our focus is on your family’s health and on allowing you to keep as much of your paycheck as possible. This led us to create an extensive national network of physicians, health care providers and health care facilities, while also obtaining high customer satisfaction.

We provide compassionate customer service with a personal touch, all while minimizing administrative costs – just what you would expect from an insurance company whose board of directors are all current or retired postal employees.

These are very challenging times for postal workers. There are attacks on health care benefits for both current and retired postal workers on Capitol Hill, by the USPS and in op-ed pieces published by several publications.

This is not new. The APWU has been successful in the past defending health care as a right for working Americans, but it will take all of us working together to keep this basic negotiated benefit for ourselves and future postal workers.

I believe we should focus on the real problem with American health care–costs spiraling out of control – not lowering care for workers whose families deserve high quality health care. We at the APWU Health Plan have seen huge increases in hospital charges, physician bills and drug costs. In fact, it is not unusual of the price for the same drug to have increased 400 percent in the last few years.

We at the APWU Health Plan are here for you, and proud to serve you and your family. Together Better Health!