The most the government will pay toward a postal retiree’s self-only health plan in 2027 is $689.50 a month, and the new rates and plan changes take effect January 1. The figure comes from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which runs the Postal Service Health Benefits (PSHB) program that replaced regular federal plans for postal workers and retirees. That ceiling sits $73.25 below the one for other federal retirees, and many Medicare-eligible postal annuitants must also hold Medicare Part B. Open season, the main window to change plans, runs from November 9 to December 14.
Who PSHB covers and when the change lands
PSHB is a separate program inside the Federal Employees Health Benefits system, run by OPM for eligible Postal Service employees, annuitants and their families. Postal workers and retirees have not been allowed to enroll or stay in a regular FEHB plan since January 1, 2025, so a postal household chooses among PSHB plans only. OPM says enrollment changes take effect January 1, 2027, while cancellations take effect December 31, 2026. What a postal retiree pays after the government’s share is the number the plan choice turns on.
The December 14 end of open season is the last regular date to change a postal health plan before the January 1 start.
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Open season runs from November 9 through December 14, 2026, according to OPM’s 2027 open season highlights. Anyone adding a family member to a PSHB plan must now submit documents proving the person’s eligibility, a rule that starts with this open season. One PSHB plan, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company’s Choice Plus Primary Postal East, is not available in 2027, and its enrollees who pick nothing are placed in the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Service Benefit Plan FEP Blue Focus.
How the $689.50 ceiling is set
OPM’s PSHB premium page lists 2027 program-wide weighted average premiums of $957.62 a month for self-only coverage, $2,074.41 for self plus one and $2,252.58 for self and family. The maximum government contribution is 72 percent of each average: $689.50, $1,493.57 and $1,621.86. On a biweekly basis the self-only average is $441.98 and the government maximum is $318.23.
Subtracting the ceiling from the average leaves $268.12 a month for the enrollee in a self-only plan priced exactly at the average. OPM notes that the maximum applies to most employees and annuitants, and that Postal Service non-career employees, or cases set differently in a collective bargaining agreement, can differ. A postal retiree in a plan above or below the average pays more or less than that $268.12 benchmark.
The ceiling is lower than the regular federal one because the postal average is lower. OPM’s FEHB premium tables put the self-only maximum there at $762.75, the product of a $1,059.39 average. The same 72 percent rule produces both numbers, so the $73.25 gap traces back to the roughly $102 difference between the two programs’ averages, $1,059.39 for FEHB and $957.62 for PSHB.
Medicare Part B and the postal plans
The PSHB program page says certain Medicare-eligible Postal Service annuitants and their Medicare-eligible family members must enroll in Medicare Part B to keep PSHB coverage. The requirement means the Part B premium, which Medicare sets separately, becomes part of a postal retiree’s health costs alongside the PSHB deduction, so the plan price alone understates the monthly outlay for people who are not exempt.
OPM lists several exemptions. They cover annuitants who retired on or before January 1, 2025 and are not already enrolled in Part B, along with their family members, and employees who were 64 or older on January 1, 2025. People who live outside the United States and its territories, those eligible for or enrolled in certain Department of Veterans Affairs health benefits, and those eligible for Indian Health Service care are also exempt.
The price change for 2027 is smaller than in the regular program. OPM’s highlights put the overall PSHB average premium increase at 6.7 percent, down from 9 percent in 2026, with the government contribution up 6.0 percent. Federal Pension Advisors reports that PSHB enrollees pay an average of 8.2 percent more toward their share, down from 11.3 percent in 2026, and notes that the 10.9 percent enrollee increase quoted for FEHB does not apply to postal plans.
Choosing a postal plan before December 14
OPM’s open season page sets the cutoff at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on December 14, 2026, and lists the FEHB Plan Comparison Tool among its resources. For postal households the figures to line up are the plan’s monthly premium, the $689.50 self-only ceiling or the matching self plus one and family amounts, and whether Part B applies to the person enrolling.
Dates matter for the household that makes a change. Cancellations take effect December 31, 2026, and enrollment changes take effect January 1, 2027, so a retiree who drops one plan and picks another is covered under the new plan from the first day of the year. Anyone adding a family member needs the eligibility documents in hand before the December 14 cutoff, since OPM now requires them with the request.
OPM’s tables fix the government side of the bill at 72 percent of the weighted average, so the remaining variable is the plan itself. The average enrollee share rises 8.2 percent in 2027 while the government contribution rises 6.0 percent, according to OPM and Federal Pension Advisors, and that difference is the part of the increase that lands on the postal household instead of the government.
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This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of AI and reviewed by The Money Overview editorial team.
