GAO: USPS Healthcare Plan Would Hurt Medicare, Postal Workers

A report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirms it: The Postal Service’s proposal to take postal workers out of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program would weaken Medicare and would result in reduced coverage and increased costs for postal workers.

“The American Postal Workers Union vehemently opposes the Postal Service’s proposal to remove postal workers from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program,” President Cliff Guffey said in a press statement following the release of a GAO report on the plan.

“The APWU has often said that the USPS proposal is a brazen attempt to shift costs to postal employees and Medicare,” he noted. “The Aug. 19 GAO report corroborates those findings.

“The FEHBP, which includes many non-profit plans, is one of the best health insurance programs in the country,” Guffey added. “Removing postal employees would jeopardize the FEHBP, and would result in less coverage and higher healthcare costs for postal workers.

“The solution to the USPS financial crisis is to repeal the requirement to pre-fund healthcare benefits for future retirees — a burden no other government agency or private company bears.”