I What is actually in scope — and what is not
Open Season covers four programs. A great deal of confusion comes from assuming it covers more.
| Program | In Open Season? | Who | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| FEHB | Yes | Federal employees, annuitants, survivors | Continues automatically if you do nothing |
| PSHB | Yes | Postal employees and annuitants | Separate program since the 2025 plan year |
| FEDVIP | Yes | Employees and annuitants | Enroll through BENEFEDS; continues automatically |
| FSAFEDS | Yes | Active employees only | Requires re-election every year |
| FEGLI | No | — | Open seasons are rare and unscheduled |
| TSP | No | — | Change contributions any time via payroll |
| FLTCIP long-term care | No | — | Administered separately |
Two of those exclusions cause real harm. Employees who wait for Open Season to fix their TSP contribution rate lose match dollars in the meantime for no reason — TSP changes go through your payroll system and take effect the next pay period. And employees who assume they will "sort out FEGLI during Open Season" discover that FEGLI open seasons happen a handful of times per decade. The FEGLI decision windows and the five-year rule that governs them are covered in Topic 27.
II How the dates are set
The window is defined by a rule rather than announced arbitrarily: it runs from the Monday of the second full workweek in November through the Monday of the second full workweek in December. For the 2026 plan year that produced November 10 through December 8, 2025.
Applying the same rule to the 2027 plan year yields November 9 through December 14, 2026. OPM confirms the official dates each fall, and that confirmation is what governs — treat the projection as a planning date, not a deadline to rely on. Elections take effect January 1.
OPM has stated that Open Season enrollments and coverage changes can be processed even during a lapse in appropriations. A shutdown in November or December does not cost you your window.
III What happens if you do nothing
Inaction produces three different outcomes depending on the program, and only one of them hurts.
- FEHB and PSHB: your enrollment continues into the new plan year at the new premium, provided your plan is still in the program. No action needed.
- FEDVIP: continues automatically, same condition.
- FSAFEDS: ends. Health care and dependent care accounts both require a fresh election every year. Silence is a decision to have no account.
Assuming FSAFEDS rolls over. It does not, it never has, and there is no grace period or retroactive fix. An employee who was contributing the health care maximum and forgets to re-elect loses the entire pre-tax benefit for a full year — and finds out in January, when nothing can be done about it.
The one case where inaction on health coverage does bite is a plan dropout. Carriers leave the program most years, and when your plan is among them there is no automatic equivalent — you must pick a new one or you may be defaulted into a plan you did not choose. In the 2026 cycle, FEDVIP had no default at all for dropped dental enrollees, meaning affected people had to actively select a new plan to keep any dental coverage. Check the dropout list before deciding to coast.
IV The premium trend nobody wants to discuss
The enrollee share of FEHB premiums has risen sharply and consistently, and two of the last four years were double-digit.
| Plan year | Average FEHB enrollee increase |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 7.7% |
| 2024 | 8.7% |
| 2025 | 13.5% |
| 2026 | 12.3% |
For the 2026 plan year, PSHB enrollees averaged 11.3 percent — the gap reflecting Medicare cost-sharing for postal retirees and different demographics. FEDVIP moved far less: dental up roughly 3.3 to 3.4 percent, vision up 0.5 percent. OPM attributes the health increases to medical inflation, specialty prescription drugs, and expanded behavioral health utilization.
Two things follow from this. First, an average is not your number — individual plans varied widely around 12.3 percent, and the difference between a plan at the top of that distribution and one at the bottom is real money for an identical family. Second, compounding matters: a plan that runs consistently above average does not merely cost more this year, it costs more off a higher base every year after.
FEHB Average Enrollee Premium Increase by Plan Year
Average increase in the enrollee share of FEHB premiums for plan years 2023 through 2026, with the PSHB figure shown for 2026, its second year as a separate program. These are program-wide averages; individual plan changes varied substantially around them.
V Self, Self Plus One, and Self and Family
FEHB offers three enrollment types, and the middle one is not what most people assume.
- Self Only — you alone.
- Self Plus One — you and exactly one eligible family member.
- Self and Family — you and all eligible family members, at one price regardless of how many.
The trap is assuming Self Plus One is always cheaper than Self and Family. It frequently is not. Carriers price each enrollment type independently, and in a meaningful number of plans a couple pays more for Self Plus One than the same couple would pay for Self and Family. Nothing prevents a two-person household from electing Self and Family, and in those plans they should.
If you are a couple on Self Plus One, pull up the Self and Family premium for your own plan and compare directly. It is two numbers on one page. Households have paid hundreds of dollars a year extra for the smaller enrollment type purely because the name sounded right.
For a family with children, the arithmetic is simpler: Self and Family costs the same whether you have one child or five, so the marginal cost of covering an additional child is zero. Children generally remain eligible to age 26.
VI Open Season Decision Engine
Answer the questions below. The tool returns the specific actions your situation calls for, in priority order, and flags the traps that apply to you.
What should you actually do this Open Season?
This produces a checklist, not a plan recommendation. Only the OPM comparison tool and your own expected utilization can pick a plan.
VII How to actually compare plans
The premium is the number everyone looks at and the worst single predictor of what a plan will cost you. The figure that matters is premium plus expected out-of-pocket for the care your household actually uses.
- Start with last year's actual spending. Pull your explanation-of-benefits records. What did you spend, on what, and where? Real history beats projection.
- Price your prescriptions against the formulary, not the tier chart. Specialty drug coverage varies enormously between plans and is the largest source of unexpected cost.
- Check that your providers are in network for the specific plan option, not just the carrier. Standard and Basic options within one carrier can have different networks.
- Add the catastrophic ceiling to your comparison. The out-of-pocket maximum is what protects you in a bad year, and it is the number a low premium often buys away.
- Model the total. Annual premium plus deductible plus expected coinsurance and copays. The cheapest premium frequently loses.
OPM's plan comparison tool goes live in early November each year and does not require a login. It is the only source that reflects the current year's brochures, and plan brochures are authoritative where any summary disagrees with them.
VIII Medicare Part B — and the PSHB requirement
For a federal retiree approaching 65, this is the Open Season decision with the largest lifetime consequences, and the answer differs by program.
Under FEHB, Part B is optional. You keep FEHB in retirement regardless. Adding Part B costs a monthly premium but frequently reduces out-of-pocket costs substantially, because FEHB plans coordinate with Medicare and many now waive deductibles and cost sharing for enrollees who carry Part B. A growing number of plans offer partial Part B premium reimbursement. Whether it nets out in your favor depends on your plan and your utilization, and it is worth running rather than assuming.
Under PSHB, Part B is generally required. Postal annuitants and covered family members aged 65 and older must enroll in Medicare Part B to maintain PSHB coverage, with limited exceptions. This is a structural feature of the program created by the Postal Service Reform Act, not an option to weigh.
Your Medicare Initial Enrollment Period runs seven months around your 65th birthday and has nothing to do with Open Season timing. Missing it can trigger a permanent Part B late-enrollment penalty of 10 percent for each full 12-month period you were eligible and did not enroll. If you are still working past 65 with active FEHB coverage, a Special Enrollment Period generally protects you — but confirm that before relying on it.
IX HDHPs, HSAs, and the FSAFEDS interaction
High-deductible plans paired with a Health Savings Account are the most tax-efficient structure available in the federal benefits package, and they are systematically under-used.
An HSA offers a triple tax advantage that nothing else in the federal lineup matches: contributions reduce taxable income, growth is untaxed, and withdrawals for qualified medical expenses are untaxed. FEHB HDHPs also make a monthly employer contribution into your HSA — money the plan puts in whether or not you contribute. Unlike a flexible spending account, the balance is yours permanently, rolls over indefinitely, and travels with you if you leave federal service.
You cannot contribute to an HSA while enrolled in a general-purpose health care FSA — including one covering you as a spouse's dependent. If you elect an HDHP and a standard FSAFEDS health care account in the same Open Season, you have disqualified yourself from HSA contributions. The compatible pairing is an HDHP with a limited expense health care FSA, which covers dental and vision only.
The other HSA disqualifier is Medicare: enrolling in any part of Medicare ends HSA eligibility. Retirees approaching 65 who are contributing to an HSA need to stop contributions before Medicare coverage begins, and the six-month retroactive effect of Part A enrollment catches people who work past 65. The broader HSA and FSAFEDS strategy is covered in Topic 28.
X FEDVIP — the program people over-buy
FEDVIP dental and vision are entirely enrollee-paid; there is no government contribution. That single fact should govern how you evaluate them, because you are buying prepaid care rather than insuring a risk.
Dental plans typically carry annual maximums in the range of one to two thousand dollars. If your household's routine dental spending is two cleanings and the occasional filling, a high-premium plan can easily cost more in premiums than it returns in benefits. If you have children in orthodontia or anticipate major restorative work, the calculation reverses sharply.
Vision plans are cheaper and more predictable — an exam plus a frame-and-lens allowance annually. They rose only 0.5 percent for the 2026 plan year. The comparison is nearly arithmetic: add up what you would spend without the plan and compare it to twelve months of premium.
Note that your FEHB plan may already include limited dental or vision benefits. Buying FEDVIP without checking that overlap means paying twice for the same coverage.
XI The five-year rule
To carry FEHB into retirement you must have been continuously enrolled for the five years of service immediately before you retire — or since your first opportunity to enroll, if that is shorter — and you must retire on an immediate annuity. There is no waiver and no exception for hardship.
Three clarifications that come up constantly:
- Switching plans does not break the chain. You are continuously enrolled in FEHB regardless of which carrier you use. Change plans as often as you like.
- Coverage as a family member counts. Time covered under a spouse's FEHB enrollment generally counts toward your five years.
- Dropping FEHB for even one plan year does break it, and the clock restarts from zero.
FEHB in retirement continues with the government paying roughly its usual share, for life, with no medical underwriting and full coordination with Medicare. There is no product on the individual market that replaces it at any price. An employee who drops FEHB in their final five years to save a few thousand dollars in premiums forfeits a benefit worth well into six figures over a retirement.
The parallel rule governs FEGLI, and the two should be checked together. Both are covered alongside everything else that ends on your last day in Topic 04 on benefits at separation, and the immediate-annuity requirement itself is explained in Topic 11 on FERS accrual.
XII The playbook, by situation
| Situation | Priority action |
|---|---|
| You use FSAFEDS | Re-elect. It does not roll over. Do this first, before anything else. |
| Your plan is dropping out | Select a replacement actively. FEDVIP in particular may have no default. |
| Couple on Self Plus One | Compare against Self and Family in your own plan. It is sometimes cheaper. |
| Turning 65 within two years | Model FEHB with and without Part B. Postal annuitants: Part B is generally required. |
| Retiring within five years | Do not drop coverage for any reason. Switching plans is fine; a gap is not. |
| Healthy, low utilization | Price an HDHP with HSA — and pair it with a limited expense FSA, not a general-purpose one. |
| Major care expected next year | Weight the out-of-pocket maximum and specialty drug formulary over the premium. |
| Adult children under 26 | Self and Family costs the same regardless of how many. Keep them on. |
| Nothing has changed | Verify your plan is still in the program, then coast — for FEHB and FEDVIP only. |
Work this list in November
- Re-elect FSAFEDS. It does not carry over, there is no grace period, and January is too late.
- Check the plan dropout list before assuming your coverage continues automatically.
- Pull last year's explanation-of-benefits records. Compare on premium plus expected out-of-pocket, never premium alone.
- Verify your prescriptions against the actual formulary of each plan you are considering.
- If you are a two-person household on Self Plus One, compare it against Self and Family in the same plan.
- Confirm your providers are in network for the specific plan option, not just the carrier.
- If you are within five years of retiring, do not create a gap in FEHB coverage for any reason.
- If you are approaching 65, model Part B both ways — and if you are a postal annuitant, confirm the enrollment requirement.
- If you elect an HDHP, pair it with a limited expense FSA so you stay HSA-eligible.
- Check whether your FEHB plan already covers dental or vision before buying FEDVIP on top of it.
- Use OPM's comparison tool once it goes live in early November, and treat the plan brochure as authoritative.
Frequently asked questions
Open Season runs from the Monday of the second full workweek in November through the Monday of the second full workweek in December. For the 2026 plan year it ran November 10 through December 8, 2025. Applying the same rule to the 2027 plan year gives November 9 through December 14, 2026, though OPM confirms the official dates each fall and that confirmation is what governs. Elections take effect on January 1 of the following plan year. Enrollments and changes can be processed even during a lapse in appropriations.
Four programs are in scope: the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, the Postal Service Health Benefits Program for postal employees and annuitants, the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program, and the Federal Flexible Spending Account Program for active employees only. FEGLI life insurance is not included, because FEGLI open seasons are rare and are not held on an annual schedule. TSP contribution changes are not included either, because you can change those at any time through your payroll system. Long-term care insurance is administered separately.
Your FEHB or PSHB enrollment and your FEDVIP enrollment continue automatically into the next plan year, at the new premium, as long as your plan remains in the program. Your FSAFEDS accounts do not. Flexible spending accounts require a fresh election every single year, and if you take no action your health care and dependent care accounts simply end on December 31. This is the most common and most expensive Open Season mistake, and it costs people thousands of pre-tax dollars every January.
The enrollee share of FEHB premiums rose an average of 7.7 percent, then 8.7 percent, then 13.5 percent, and then 12.3 percent for the 2026 plan year — two consecutive double-digit years. PSHB enrollees saw an average increase of 11.3 percent for 2026. FEDVIP moved far less, with dental premiums up roughly 3.3 to 3.4 percent and vision up 0.5 percent. These are averages across all plans; your individual plan may be well above or below them, which is precisely why comparing rather than coasting matters.
Self Plus One covers you and exactly one eligible family member. Self and Family covers you and all eligible family members at a single price regardless of how many there are. The trap is that Self Plus One is not always cheaper than Self and Family — in a number of plans the two are priced closely enough that a couple pays more for Self Plus One than they would for Self and Family. Because the enrollment types are priced independently by each carrier, this must be checked plan by plan rather than assumed.
For most FEHB retirees, Part B is optional. It adds a premium but frequently reduces out-of-pocket costs, and a growing number of FEHB plans offer partial Part B premium reimbursement or waive cost sharing for enrollees who carry it. The calculus differs under PSHB: postal annuitants and covered family members aged 65 or older are generally required to enroll in Medicare Part B to keep PSHB coverage, with limited exceptions. If you are approaching 65, this is the Open Season decision with the largest lifetime consequences.
Only with a qualifying life event. Marriage, divorce, the birth or adoption of a child, a change in your or your spouse's employment, a move out of your plan's service area, or loss of other coverage all open a limited window, usually 60 days. Absent one of those, your Open Season election governs the entire plan year. This is why treating Open Season as a formality is costly: it is the one moment each year when you can change your mind for any reason at all.
The specific plan does not, but continuous enrollment does. To carry FEHB into retirement you must have been enrolled in FEHB for the five years of service immediately before you retire, or since your first opportunity to enroll if that is shorter, and you must retire on an immediate annuity. Switching plans during Open Season does not break that chain, because you remain continuously covered. Dropping coverage entirely for even one plan year does break it, and there is no waiver.