I have no idea what you refer. FEHB is heavily subsidized during retirement for federal employees.
Federal pensions are not funded. Perhaps you are referring to the savings plan in addition to your pension. I am not even sure if the savings plan is funded, at least the fixed income part of the savings plan. Federal pensions are sources of immense unfunded liabilities for taxpayers. The federal government does not even account for its unfunded pension liability. Federal employees contribute only a pittance for the pension and post retirement health care benefits.
I believe that we have had these exchanges before. You assert a poor federal retiree position. I assert that federal retirement benefits are fabolous, on par with the best state government plans. Congress has done a fine job of disguising the true value of retiree benefits for federal employees. Here are some of the fabulous benefits that you seem to deride perhaps hoping that taxpayers do not revolt about the costs of the benefits:
- Early retirement starting at age 57
- Catch up Social Security benefits from age 57 to 62
- Highly subsidized early retiree medical care that can continue throughout retirement. Even if you do not elect FEHB after age 65, you have received an enormous subsidy from age 57 to 65. The cost of a comparable private plan during this period could be more than $20,000 per year.
- Thrift savings plan with taxpayer contributions of 5 percent.
- Less than one percent employee cost for FERS benefits
The taxpayer contributes 16.2 percent (plus Social Security of 6.2 percent) in addition to paying for your early retiree medical benefits. Yet you still complain.
The USPS pays OPM for their retirements IN ADVANCE and it also pays FEHB for their medical insurance costs IN ADVANCE ~ actually 5 years in advance.
You want me to think of you as Ol'Massa 'cause YOU pay the bills and yet you're just a leach on postal delivery services. You get that for free. Lord only knows if you actually pay your postage or maybe jury rigged your meter head to get free postage, but if you have, Heaven help you.
No, you are not my master. You didn't pay me out of your taxes.
Now you know.
BTW, you could have discovered that by reading my homepage on FR and thinking about it.