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President Biden Slated to Sign Long Awaited Postal Reform Into Law

The Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 is nearly law as the landmark legislation awaits President Biden’s signature. The new law will represent the culmination of more than a decade of work to provide the Postal Service with much needed financial flexibility while simultaneously protecting the earned health benefits of postal and federal workers and retirees. The bill passed with bipartisan support in both chambers, 79-19 in the Senate and 342–92 in the House of Representatives.

To learn more about how the law will affect federal and postal employee and retiree health benefits, see NARFE’s fact sheet, here. The legislation gained NARFE’s support after it was amended to address our concerns.

NARFE worked tirelessly to prevent unintended increases to Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program premiums for federal employees and retirees. Thank you to every member who contacted their legislators in support of these changes. Your advocacy was critical to protecting the earned benefits of the federal and postal communities.

The Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 creates a new Postal Service Health Benefits (PSHB) program within the FEHB program for Postal Service employees and annuitants starting in January 2025. Just like FEHB, the PSHB will be operated by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and plans will be required to offer “equivalent . . . benefits and cost-sharing requirements” as provided by each carrier’s FEHB plans, except as needed to integrate with Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage. Importantly, actuarial analysis of the new PSHB program found that it should lower average costs, and, therefore, plan premiums, for both PSHB and FEHB program plans, benefitting postal and nonpostal enrollees. Unlike past iterations of postal reform, this bill preserves choice for current postal retirees regarding whether to enroll in Medicare Part B and creates a special enrollment period for eligible postal retirees to take Part B without the late enrollment penalty. NARFE is also pleased with included provisions to repeal the burdensome mandate to prefund future postal retiree health benefits and the bill’s codification of six-day mail delivery.

More information on this bill and how it will affect all federal employees can be found at NARFE fact sheet here.