Branch

10/02/2026

Miller

📢 2027 PSHB PREMIUM RATES: WHAT ARE YOU PAYING NEXT YEAR?

Postal employees, the 2027 Postal Service Health Benefits (PSHB) premium rates are available. Here's a breakdown of how employee biweekly premium contributions are changing across the plans listed in the rate sheet.

📊 AVERAGE BIWEEKLY PREMIUM CHANGE

Across the 36 plan and enrollment combinations in the spreadsheet, the simple average change is +$28.37 per pay period. The average varies by coverage type:

🔹 Self Only: +$13.37
🔹 Self Plus One: +$35.42
🔹 Self & Family: +$36.31

📋 EMPLOYEE BIWEEKLY PREMIUM CHANGE BY PLAN

Self Only | Self Plus One | Self & Family

APWU Health Plan
• Consumer Driven Option: +$9.11 | +$19.81 | +$21.60
• High Option: +$35.82 | +$62.95 | +$82.34

Blue Cross Blue Shield
• Basic Option: +$12.35 | +$26.44 | +$27.94
• FEP Blue Focus: +$9.02 | +$19.39 | +$21.33
• Standard Option: +$6.20 | +$11.44 | +$11.41

GEHA Employee Organization
• HDHP: No change across all enrollment types
• Standard Option: No change across all enrollment types

MHBP
• Standard Option: +$45.69 | +$183.96 | +$158.83
• Value Plan: +$12.82 | +$33.37 | +$36.58

NALC Health Benefit Plan
• Consumer Driven Health Plan (CDHP): +$13.42 | +$30.52 | +$33.05
• High Option: -$5.08 | -$3.31 | +$2.95

Rural Carrier Benefit Plan
• High Option: +$21.13 | +$40.46 | +$39.70

📌 WHAT SHOULD YOU KEEP IN MIND?

✅ These are changes in the employee's biweekly premium contribution, not the total cost of the insurance plan.

✅ Some plans have increases, some remain unchanged, and some have decreases for certain enrollment types.

✅ Premiums are only one part of the equation. Compare deductibles, copays, prescription coverage, provider networks, and out-of-pocket maximums before making a decision.

💬 Have you reviewed your 2027 health plan options yet? Share your thoughts below and help keep fellow letter carriers informed.

08/09/2026

I thought we were broke?

08/09/2026

08/06/2026

I just received a copy of the OIG's white paper on how to fix the issues within the Postal Service, and there is a glaring, and obvious, most likely intentional, omission to it. It is time to stop pretending that high-level white papers and executive-suite spreadsheets reflect the reality of the workroom floor. The latest Office of Inspector General reports and management's ongoing strategic plans miss the forest for the trees, offering superficial fixes that actively harm the institution rather than saving it. Official reports treat the Postal Service like a Wall Street corporation that can spreadsheet its way out of trouble through endless service degradation, delayed mail loops, and rushed network overhauls. They ignore the foundational reality that last-mile delivery and the demand for reliable local service are the economic anchors of this organization. Tinkering with benefit funds or pushing flawed delivery models does not fix systemic failure, because it only accelerates it.

If the Postal Service is going to survive and fulfill its constitutional mandate, leadership has to face some hard, unvarnished truths starting with structural choices they have desperately tried to avoid. If we actually want a viable postal network, leadership must drop the corporate expansion playbook and return to the fundamentals that made the system dependable in the first place. We must massively reduce top heavy management. The bloat is at the top, and we must drastically cut administrative and managerial overhead that drains resources away from the front lines where mail is actually sorted and delivered. We must abandon fragile and over-centralized operational experiments and return to the proven, stable mail delivery frameworks we had in the early 2000s.

Management's obsession with chasing low-margin and high-cost volume needs to end immediately. We must stop subsidizing massive e-commerce shippers with steep destination entry discounts and stop giving away free shipping materials that drain institutional capital. Furthermore, every single dollar spent must be evaluated by a single metric. If an expenditure does not directly improve the Universal Service Obligation and support reliable, universal six-day delivery for the American public, we must stop funding it. The public deserves a postal system that functions, not a managed decline, and it is time for leadership to abandon these white paper illusions and get back to basics.

You can read the OIG White Paper here: https://www.uspsoig.gov/reports/white-papers/options-addressing-us-postal-services-financial-gap

08/05/2026

The Postal Service tells us it's broke.

We're told there's no money for meaningful wage increases. No money for better equipment. No money for enough staffing. No money to fix the problems that Rural Carriers, City Carriers, Clerks, Mail Handlers, and Maintenance employees deal with every day.

Yet somehow, there's still money for executive bonuses.

According to recent reports, Postmaster General David Steiner is pushing back against legislation that would eliminate executive bonuses unless the Postal Service meets a 95% on-time delivery standard.

Senator Josh Hawley said, "There is no reason postal service leadership should be lavishly compensated while they refuse to meet basic standards."

Senator Richard Blumenthal added, "Bonuses for failure make no sense."

If the Postal Service is losing billions of dollars each year, why should executives receive bonuses while the employees doing the work are told to do more with less?

Craft employees don't receive bonuses when management misses service targets. They don't receive bonuses when the organization reports another financial loss. Instead, they're expected to carry the burden.

Personally, I don't think executive bonuses should be tied solely to on-time delivery. They should also depend on whether the Postal Service is financially sustainable and whether it's adequately staffed to provide reliable service. If the organization isn't meeting those basic benchmarks, executive bonuses shouldn't even be part of the conversation.

Maybe it's time accountability starts at the top.

What do you think?

07/17/2026

06/17/2026

📦🏀 FLAGGED MAIL?: A Baytown postal supervisor is accused of stealing a rare Cooper Flagg rookie card worth thousands from a customer's package — then allegedly re-listing it on eBay, where the original buyer spotted it for sale.

Investigators say a sting operation led to the recovery of the card and the arrest of the 44-year-old USPS employee. Authorities also found drugs and another unopened mail package addressed to someone else inside her vehicle, according to court records.

The victim says the ordeal has shaken his trust in the mail system.

KPRC 2's Bryce Newberry will have the full story tonight on KPRC 2 News at 10.