FLEOA URGES SENATE TO REJECT SENATOR REID’S PUBLIC OPTION “COMPROMISE”

Lewisberry – Today Jon Adler, National President for the

Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA), is

urging Senators to reject a recent public option compromise

presented by Senator Harry Reid. Adler emphasizes that as a

Federal employee group, the Federal Law Enforcement

Officers Association (FLEOA) takes no position regarding

whether or not health care legislation should offer a public

option. However, he is obligated to express his concern about

the consequences of Senator Reid’s proposal, which FLEOA

sees as a slow walk to Senator Grassley’s abandoned

suggestion – abolishment of the Federal Employee Health

Benefits Program (FEHBP).

Under this purported compromise, the Office of Personnel

Management (OPM) would negotiate with private insurers and

administer an FEHBP styled program for the civilian population

should private companies fail to provide services in

accordance with the health care bill.

This proposal fails to consider program growth of such a

program and as such does not see the real possibility of

FEHBP being subsumed by the newly crafted, OPM run civil

health care program.

Jon Adler explains that he, like others in the Federal

workforce, is frustrated by rising premiums under his FEHBP

plan, but stresses that it is nothing compared to what could be

expected should Federal workers be thrown into the same risk

pool as thousands of the previously uninsured. “We cannot

afford the kind of premiums under such a plan.”