It’s officially Open Season for Federal Employees Health Benefits enrollees

It’s officially Open Season for Federal Employees Health Benefits enrollees

For plan year 2026, federal employees’ health insurance premiums are rising by an average of 12%.

Michele Sandiford

November 10, 2025 3:05 pm

< a min read

• Open Season has officially begun. Enrollees in the Federal Employees Health Benefits program have between now and Dec. 8 to make changes to their health plan options. The open enrollment period also applies for Postal Service employees, as well as those with dental and vision coverage. For plan year 2026, federal employees’ health insurance premiums are rising by an average of 12%.
• The Office of Personnel Management is facing a major flood of employees’ retirement applications. More than 20,000 new retirement cases entered OPM’s system in the month of October alone. That’s on top of the tens of thousands of cases OPM already has in its inventory. The large caseload is slowing down OPM’s processing speed as well. In October, it took an average of 79 days to move a retirement package from start to finish. On top of that, OPM is expecting another big wave of retirements to hit at the end of the calendar year.
• The Trump administration violated Education Department employees’ First Amendment rights when it changed their out of office messages to add partisan or political statements when the partial shutdown began. A U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. ruled Friday in favor of the American Federation of Government Employees’ lawsuit. The court provided declaratory and permanent injunctive relief. The court said the White House must immediately remove partisan messaging from the out-of-office messages associated with only AFGE members’ e-mail accounts. If that isn’t possible, the court said the department must remove such messaging from all affected employees’ e-mail accounts.
• The Treasury Department joins a growing set of agencies investigating the 8(a) program. The Treasury Department is joining the Small Business Administration in analyzing contracts under the 8(a) program for possible fraud. Treasury said it kicked off a comprehensive audit of all of its 8(a) contracts and task orders, totaling approximately $9 billion. The agency decided to take a deeper dive into its participation in the 8(a) program after suspending one of its biggest small business contractors, ATI Government Solutions, following allegations of fraud involving more than $253 million in previously issued contract awards. As part of the investigation, acquisition professionals are required to review detailed staffing plans and monthly workforce performance reports for all service contracts.

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• There may finally be an end in sight to the now longest partial government shutdown ever. A group of moderate Democrats have a tentative deal to reopen the government if Republicans promise to hold a vote on expiring health care subsidies by December. The bill would pass three annual spending bills, reverse any federal employee layoffs that happened during the shutdown and extend the rest of government funding until Jan. 30. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Angus King (I-Maine) agreed to a bill that would pass three annual spending bills, reverse any federal employee layoffs that happened during the shutdown and extend the rest of government funding until Jan. 30. Republicans had not yet said whether they support the deal, and it’s unclear whether there would be enough Democrats to support it as well.
• The Congressional Budget Office is putting in place cybersecurity improvements after a recent hack. The CBO confirmed last week it is investigating a security incident. The Washington Post reported that a foreign actor was behind the data breach. CBO didn’t confirm who it believes is behind the hack. But the congressional agency said it has implemented additional monitoring and new security controls to further protect the agency’s systems.
• The Coast Guard has beat its recruiting goals for the second year in a row. It added more than 5,200 active-duty enlisted service members in fiscal 2025, well above its goal of 4,300. That’s also the highest accession number for the Coast Guard since 1991. The Coast Guard Reserve also beat its annual goal by adding 777 new reservists last year. The latest numbers mark a continued turning point for the Coast Guard, which had been in the midst of a recruiting crisis just a few years ago.
• The Pentagon is restructuring the chain of command within its acquisition system. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday that the Defense Department is replacing the program executive offices that have long formed the backbone of the DoD’s procurement system with “portfolio acquisition executives.” The PAEs will be more empowered to make decisions and more directly accountable for performance. The changes are part of a wide-ranging overhaul of DoD acquisition rules, regulations and culture. Hegseth said these updates are part of what he framed as a war on Pentagon bureaucracy amid a need to accelerate the procurement system, increase competition, use commercial technology as DoD’s default option and eliminate excessive regulations.

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