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As long as the insurance companies know the demographic of who they are serving (young, healthy letter carriers in top shape, for example) they'll bargain for a lower price with those who represent USPS employees. Once you throw the office workers in the mix, that's a problem.

The FEHB already covers a wide spectrum of Federal employees, including of course many office workers, and the non-postal and postal rates (at least here in IL) are very similar (in fact they are identical for the option I checked, $384 bi-weekly for the Blue Choice Family (High) plan).

here's no way state employees are going to provide the same level of response that we get from OPM.

Well, what you have there is the collision between theory and reality. For a lot of people the default assumption is that the smaller the unit of government, the more cost effective and responsive it will be.

As a business owner I know that this is often not the case.

For example I *far* prefer dealing with the IRS than with the Illinois Department of Revenue. There has never been a cast in which I could not straighten out a problem with the IRS if I had the appropriate documentation, while on several occasions I have given up and just paid disputed amounts to the ILDR because it was literally *impossible* to reach a competent individual to resolve the problem. (In fact, it was often impossible to reach anyone at all, and if you could reach someone, you could never reach them twice). Or, to give your another example, I never caught the slightest wiff of corruption from an IRS auditor, but I have been solicited for bribes by local (municipal and county) building code officials in three different states.

Obamakkkare has an ambition of FORCING people into using a system like FEHB

You with either like the concept of community rating, or you do not.

If you do not, you need to keep in mind that those of us earning an above average income still end up paying for much of the medical care of people who cannot or will not insure themselves.

It's not, you know, as though a "young, healthy, uninsured person ib top shape" who shows up at the ER after an automobile accident is gonna' say "Just put me back out on the curb and let me bleed out... I elected not to carry insurance, and my motto is 'Live Free and Die'".

At least, I have not seen it happen yet.

I posted the board for the various prices on FEHB insurers. FEHB itself does not insure anyone. They simply facilitate the purchase of insurance by the insured ~ FROM among several insurers.

Take a good look at it. Think about who is most likely to be among the greatest number of insured people for each.

BTW, FEHB only has to deal with about 2.5 million federal employees. The vast majority of state systems will need to deal with MANY MORE THAN THAT.

And, they'll be dealing with people who don't like it and will feel like they are working with a state echange only to avoid heavy fines and lengthy imprisonment.

I doubt any of the state exchanges will function.