CAUSEY: USPS' perky benefits

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By Mike Causey

Even within the federal family, there are sibling jealousies of the Mom-always-liked-you-best variety. In this case, some workers say that Uncle Sam favors folks in his largest operation by paying a much larger share of their ever-growing health premiums.

On one side are the feds who launch NASA rockets, Pentagon IT experts, Interior Department auditors and other white-collar civil servants. On the other side are workers who sort and deliver the mail and sell you stamps.

So, if you are tired of paying high health-insurance premiums and sick about increases coming next year, here's a tip: Join the service.

The U.S. Postal Service, that is.

Although the USPS is losing money, handling fewer letters (can you say e-mail and Twitter?) and trying to get thousands of workers to take early retirement, it continues to pay a much larger chunk of its employee health premiums than does the Justice Department, General Services Administration or most other federal agencies.

At a time when health premiums and medical costs are soaring — despite deflation in the general economy — having a good, affordable health plan is the perk de jour. And the Postal Service is once again leading the way.

Under the complex, self-adjusting formula used to determine the government's share of employee health premiums, most federal agencies pay just over 72 cents of each employee or retiree premium dollar.

But the USPS again next year will pay a larger share of its employee premiums. That means that postal workers will pay less — often much less — for the exact same coverage as their counterparts in other federal operations.

Example: Blue Cross-Blue Shield's popular self-only service benefit plan will raise its total biweekly premium to $248.42 in January. The total premium for family coverage will be $561.10 every two weeks. The total premium for postal and nonpostal workers will be the same. But

If you work for the USPS, your share of the total Blue Cross premium next year will be $57.53 for single coverage, and you will pay $132.83 biweekly for a family plan. By contrast, nonpostal workers at Justice, IRS, Transportation, OPM and the Labor Department will pay $80.81 (single coverage) and $185.06 (family coverage) each pay period.