Congressional Health Care for Seniors Act

Yesterday a group of Republican Senators, led by Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky introduced a Medicare reform plan -- called the Congressional Health Care for Seniors Act (S. 2196) -- that would transitions seniors into the FEHBP. The press release explains that

In order to ensure low premiums and prevent plans from cherry-picking patients, the CHCSA creates a new “high-risk pool” for the highest cost patients within the FEHBP. The federal government will directly reimburse health care plans for enrolling the costliest 5 percent of patients, which keeps premiums low while allowing high-risk patients to get the same high-quality health care as every other enrollee – federal employees and seniors alike.

Govexec.com reports that the proposal was not well received by the federal employee unions or NARFE because the seniors would be in the same risk pool as the federal employees and annuitants which would increase premiums for the FEHBP enrollees, even with the high risk pool.