Democrats hit feds’ long-term care issues and Trump’s planned retirement cuts
In November, fuming members of
Seven months later, they are still waiting for answers - but not patiently.
It was at a House government operations subcommittee hearing a few days after
The insurance for purchase by federal employees and retirees is provided by the
"We do not have a proposal that is ready for being shared with the committee at this time,"
Connolly: "Any idea of the timeline when you will do that?"
O'Brien: "We are continuing to work. I cannot give you a timeline at this time, sir."
Added Rep.
Two hundred and five days later, they still seek that commitment.
In a letter sent Thursday, Beyer and Connolly again asked OPM when it will have a plan to protect long-term care enrollees from sudden and dramatic premium increases.
Complaining that O'Brien's answers "were not sufficient," the congressmen said "in order to avoid premium price shock each time there is a new FLTCIP (Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program) contract, we must have an understanding of how OPM plans to address these urgent matters going forward."
Urgent is not the way to characterize OPM's response to questions about long-term care.
An agency spokesperson declined to say what, if anything, has been done to stabilize the program since the November hearing. Even basic questions related to the number of people in the program were deferred. There were about 274,000 last year.
"OPM has received the letter, and we are reviewing it," an agency statement said. "OPM does not have anything additional to add at this time."
The lack of agency accountability adds fuel to the ire.
"The utter fecklessness of that office and having no answers, no recommendations, no reforms, no proposals is astounding," said Connolly in an interview, "and a terrible disservice to the federal employees and retirees who counted on this service."
The indignation of the congressmen is outpaced by the anger of the program's participants.
Said
Said Beyer: "We just don't want a recurrence of the disaster that happened last time."
Beyer, along with more than 100
"Specifically, the President has proposed increasing the amount federal employees pay toward their retirement fund, which is tantamount to a pay cut," they wrote.
In a statement to The
That's not good enough for the
"We will oppose any effort to balance the budget on the backs of public servants," the House members' letter said, "and we urge you to stop legislation from being brought to the House floor that would undermine and demoralize our federal workforce."
Read this original document at: https://connolly.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1041
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