Federal employees and retirees will be coughing up more money for their health insurance next year, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced this week.

While the average cost increase is 8.8 percent, enrollees in the most popular insurance plans will pay up to 15 percent more. This unpleasant announcement comes fast on the heels of news that one senator wishes to eliminate the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program completely and that the president was holding firm on his decision to give employees only a 2.0 percent salary increase.

OPM says the average premium increase will be $5.98 per pay period for individual coverage and $12.87 for family coverage. However, enrollees in the popular Blue Cross Blue Shield Standard Option will pay $23.02 more for individual coverage each pay period, an increase of 15.1 percent. Families in the plan will see their premiums increase by $44.38, or 12.4 percent. With salaries increasing just two percent, that increase will make a serious dent in the typical paycheck.

About 60 percent of the more than 8 million participants in the FEHBP are enrolled in one of the Blue Cross plans. Officials blame the premium increases partially on the rising cost of health care in the United States and the aging of the federal workforce as a whole. They also noted that 90,000 enrollees left the Standard Option in 2009. Many of those who switched to other plans were healthy, leaving the Standard Option with a pool of enrollees who needed more expensive care.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal employee union, issued a statement expressing "grave concern" about the increases.

"To add insult to injury," the AFGE said, "enrollees will not only have to pay much higher premiums, they will have to pay a higher share of premiums, as FEHBP's formula allows the government to shift an increasing share of costs onto enrollees every time a plan's premiums go up by more than the average."

According to AFGE, the government will pay just 67 percent of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Standard Option family premium in 2010, down from 69 percent in 2009.