Sen. James Lankford is warning that the prolonged shutdown could soon threaten the health care coverage of federal employees.
In a letter sent Oct. 30 to Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor, the Oklahoma Republican expressed concern that agencies are no longer contributing to trust funds that are managed by OPM and used to pay for government workers’ health insurance.
“Despite many efforts to reopen the government and pay federal workers, vital agencies remain closed, employees’ paychecks continue to be withheld and now access to healthcare for every federal employee and their families could be threatened,” Lankford wrote in the letter, first obtained by POLITICO. “The men and women who serve our nation should not face uncertainty about their paychecks or their health coverage because of political obstruction in the Senate.”
It’s unclear how soon the lapse in agency contributions towards the fund could impair OPM’s ability to pay for federal workers’ health insurance. As part of the largest employer-sponsored health insurance program in the world — the Federal Employee Health Benefits program, or FEHB — OPM is statutorily authorized to contract with private insurers and pay premiums on behalf of the federal workers, with the government generally funding around 75 percent of those premiums.
Within the FEHB, OPM tracks the finances for each health insurance plan separately and maintains contingency reserves for each plan, which are used to offset unexpected premium increases.
But as the Senate heads into the sixth week of a government shutdown, Lankford says these reserves and their potential depletion could become a more significant issue. A spokesperson for OPM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
One Senate Republican aide, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said Republicans could use this dynamic as a point of leverage against Democrats, who have been insisting on an extension on expiring Obamacare subsidies as they hold out support for ending the shutdown.
“While Democrats claim they are protecting health care, their decision to keep the government closed is threatening the very benefits they say they want to preserve,” said the aide. “The Senator is sending a letter to OPM to better understand how maintaining coverage during a funding lapse would work, and to offer support where it’s needed.”
According to OPM, the combined balance of the FEHB and a similar program for certain retirees was around $25.4 billion at the end of fiscal year 2024. In his letter to Kupor, Lankford asked when the funds financing each respective insurance plan would hit zero and when insurers would be notified of the lapse in funds.
Lankford also inquired if OPM knows of any legal options to continue paying employer-provided contributions for health care in the event the trust fund is emptied.