COLA Announcement Renews Need for New Inflation Formula
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Contact: Jessica Klement |
| October 22, 2014 | 703-838-7760 |
| jklement@narfe.org |
Alexandria, VA – Following the Bureau of Labor Statistics announcement of a 1.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2015, Joseph A. Beaudoin, president of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE), released the following statement on the impact to federal civilian retirement annuities and Social Security benefits:
“News of the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for the coming year always is eagerly awaited by the countless Americans who rely on the increase to keep up with the rising price of food, housing, transportation and medical care. However, despite the partial relief this 1.7 percent COLA will provide, the announcement is a reminder that our method for calculating the increasing cost of goods and services is out of sync with the reality faced by millions of federal annuitants, Social Security recipients and military retirees, who spend more than twice as much on medical care than the population measured by the current CPI-W formula.
“The average 3.8 percent increase in health care premiums for federal employees and retirees in 2015 shows that medical costs continue to outpace the COLA as it is calculated presently. We need a cost-of-living formula that doesn’t force these Americans to take one step forward, then two steps back.
“As members of Congress and the President develop their budget proposals for fiscal year 2016, I urge them to include a switch to the CPI-E formula, a more accurate measure of inflation that accounts for health care and other costs facing seniors.
“Conversely, they should reject previous proposals to switch to the Chained CPI, which would only make a bad situation worse by further decreasing the hard-earned benefits of Social Security recipients and federal retirees, while increasing taxes on lower- and middle-income taxpayers.”
###
The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE), one of America’s oldest and largest associations, was founded in 1921 with the mission of protecting the earned rights and benefits of America’s active and retired federal workers. The largest federal employee/retiree organization, NARFE represents the retirement interests of nearly five million current and future federal annuitants, spouses and survivors.
Related Posts
OPM Finalizes Rule to Protect Civil Servants from Schedule F Reemergence
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has officially finalized a rule aimed at protecting career civil servants from the potential reemergence of the Schedule F policy, an initiative from the previous administration that sought to convert most federal employees to at-will workers. Published in the Federal Register on April 4, 2024, this regulation solidifies protections for 2.2 million federal employees, making it challenging for any future administration to reintroduce Schedule F-like policies.
House Panel Advances Bill to Combat FEHB Fraud
The FEHB Protection Act, H.R. 7868, was marked up by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on April 10, and then subsequently passed the same day. The bill, and its counterpart in the Senate, S.4035, is aimed at combating fraud in the largest employer- sponsored health insurance program in the United States, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). The bill would require federal agencies to verify that an employee is eligible to add a family member to their FEHB health coverage plan.
Attention All NARFE Members: WEP/GPO Hearing April 16
NARFE and its allies continue to make considerable progress in our ongoing efforts to repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO).