Continuing Coverage

Federal employees may find themselves shelling out a lot more money for health insurance if their children don't secure their own coverage by the time they reach their early 20s. That's because the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program only provides insurance to dependents until they turn 22.

"Young adults are the fastest growing age group among the uninsured," said Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union. "While the current law provides health insurance until age 22, 22-year-olds are seldom in a position to obtain health insurance themselves."

FEHBP coverage is available to spouses of federal employees and unmarried dependent children under age 22, including legally adopted children and children born out of wedlock. Stepchildren and foster children also qualify. But the only dependents older than 22 eligible for continued coverage are those incapable of self support because of mental or physical incapacities.

According to a report released last week by the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation supporting independent research on health care issues, nearly two out of five college graduates can expect to be without health insurance at some point during their first year out of school.

Kelley noted that the law surrounding FEHBP is cutting many students off from their parent's federal health plan even before they graduate.

Nancy Kichak, associate director for strategic human resources policy at the Office of Personnel Management, said the government offers the option of temporary continuation of coverage for dependents over 22. But under the temporary option, dependents or their parents are responsible for paying the full cost for the coverage, Kichak said.

"They are always welcome to shop on the outside," Kichak said. "Usually, if they are a student, they can buy it through their [university]."

Earlier this month, Kelley told the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce that employees and their families could greatly benefit from legislation that would increase the cutoff age for dependent coverage under FEHBP to 25.

"Because young adults are healthier than older adults, it may be possible that adding more young adults to a pool of health care participants may even lower the average costs of group insurance," Kelley testified.

But according to Kichak, OPM does not view such a proposal favorably. Agency officials believe increasing the dependent care age would actually hike the costs of FEHBP group insurance, Kichak said. She did not indicate whether any studies have been conducted to assess the cost of boosting the age.

Kelley said that while OPM did a quick, informal analysis, a more comprehensive study needs to be done.

"Common sense tells you that if you add large numbers of young, healthy people to the program, that should spread out costs among everyone," Kelley said. "It should not be prohibitively expensive."

Congress has yet to tackle the issue. But Kelley said NTEU is working with a number of lawmakers in hopes of securing a proposal.

Meanwhile, many states are jumping on board to bump up the eligibility of dependents. Utah recently changed its law so that dependents don't grow out of health care coverage until their 26th birthday, regardless of whether they are enrolled in school. New Jersey provides health care coverage for dependents until their 30th birthday.

"The federal government is already behind the states on this," Kelley said. "They should be leading on this issue so the cutoff age is raised for all."