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Hello everyone, Ian Smith here with
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fedsmith.com bringing you an important
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update today. The Office of Personnel
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Management has announced the 2026
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federal employees health benefits
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program premiums as well as the postal
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service health benefits program. And um
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in this video I just wanted to go over
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the the premium increases themselves. I
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wanted to focus on that. I'm not going
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to get into a whole lot of other detail
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beyond that if you'd like more
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information. I've posted an article on
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fedsmith.com, so please check that out.
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And it it does go into um much more
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detail about the topic. And I will
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include a link to that in the
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description for you. But I'll jump right
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into it here. Um there are double-digit
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increases again in 2026 for the federal
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employees health benefits program. FEB
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for short. And that's following on last
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year's premium increases 2025.
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They went up 13 a.5%. That was the
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average premium increase for the enrolly
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So I guess if there's any good news is
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that the increase is not quite as high
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this year as it was last year. The cost
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of health care of course as we all know
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has just been skyrocketing at a
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exponential rate. And for the last
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couple of years, that's why we've seen
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these double-digit premium increases.
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According to OPM, the enrollies share of
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the premiums are increasing 12.3% on
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average next year. And I'm going to put
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all this up on the screen and read
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through some of it here for you. The
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government contributions
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portion is going up 9.2% total.
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and the total premiums overall the
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overall average increase is 10.2%.
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Now within those figures
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uh for the enrolly share it's 11.9%
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total for self for self plus one 12% and
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12.8% for family. And remember these are
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averages. These are the average
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So your plan may be different. It might
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be higher or lower than some of these.
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And on the government side, 9.2% for
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self, 9.6% for self plus one, and 9.1%
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the overall average increase, it was
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10.1% for self, 10.4% for self plus one,
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and 10.3% for family. For the postal
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service health benefits program, and
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remember this program just began last
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year. Uh this was started it it first
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kicked off in 2025. OPM had to start
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this because it was required under the
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Postal Service Reform Act to establish
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the Postal Service Service Health
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Benefits Program within the FEP.
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Um and under that program, OPM may
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contract with carriers to offer health
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benefits plans for postal service
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employees and retirees.
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So just a quick recap of what this
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program is. So for the
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postal service health benefits or PSHB
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the enrolly share of premiums overall in
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2026 are going up 11.3% total. Overall
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the total premium increase is 9% and
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then the government's portion of that is
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8% next year. And looking at a more
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detailed breakdown for the government's
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portion of the contributions,
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um the average increases break down as
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follows. 8.1% for self, 8.2% for self
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plus one, 7.6% for family. For the
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enrolly share, the overall averages
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break down as 10.7% for self, 11.3% for
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self plus one, and 11.7% for family. For
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the overall average premium increases,
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it breaks down as 8.9% for self, 9.2%
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for self plus one, and 8.8% for family.
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And remember that self, self plus one,
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and family. These are the enrollment
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types within um FEB and PSHB.
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And uh the last thing I wanted to
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mention, just a reminder, the open
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season, the federal benefits open season
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is coming up starting in November. And
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it runs November 10th through December
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And that's the time when federal
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employees and retirees can pick their
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health plan for the coming year. And so
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that's why OPM's been announcing these
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premiums is in advance of of that. So,
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um, employees and retirees can have time
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to research and pick the plan they want
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next year. And you can find all of the
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premiums and all the information about
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the FEB plans for 2026 on the OPM
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website. I'll be sure to leave a link in
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the description for that as well. Thank
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you for watching and have a good day.
