NU Online News Service, April 21, 2004, 1:33 p.m. EDT – The U.S. Office of Personnel Management wants health carriers to help it set up a high-deductible health plan program for federal employees.[@@]
Officials are mainly interested in adding a health savings account option to the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, but the program must include alternative benefits for older federal workers, according to the annual OPM call letter.
Benefit program proposals for 2005 are due June 1.
President Bush brought HSAs to life Dec. 8, 2003, when he signed the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003. One MPDIMA section lets eligible taxpayers who buy high-deductible health insurance policies exclude HSA contributions from taxable income and spend HSA cash on qualified expenses without paying income taxes on the distributions.
The high-deductible health insurance policies can offer special low-deductible coverage for certain types of preventive care.