Federal Benefits Open Season: FEHB and PSHB

The programs

What FEHB and PSHB are

The Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program is the health insurance program for eligible federal employees, annuitants, and certain Tribal employees, and for their eligible family members. The Postal Service Health Benefits (PSHB) Program covers U.S. Postal Service employees and annuitants. OPM describes FEHB as including PSHB, and it is the largest employer-sponsored health benefits program in the country (Open Season highlights for plan year 2027).

For 2027, OPM says FEHB will have 45 participating carriers offering 118 plan options, and PSHB will have 17 participating carriers offering 65 plan options (OPM's Open Season announcement). You choose among the plans offered where you live or work. An HMO enrolls only in its service area. A fee-for-service plan with a preferred provider organization is offered more widely and pays less when you go out of network.

Health, dental, and vision enrollment continues from year to year if you do nothing. The Federal Flexible Spending Account Program (FSAFEDS) does not. Anyone who wants an FSA for 2027 has to enroll again (OPM Open Season).

The dates

November 9 through December 14, 2026

OPM's Open Season page states that Open Season is November 9 through December 14, 2026. For FEHB and PSHB, it ends at 11:59 pm in the time zone of your electronic enrollment system on Monday, December 14, 2026. For FEDVIP and FSAFEDS, it ends at 11:59 pm Eastern Time that same day.

The effective date is not the same for every enrollee. OPM's plan-year 2027 highlights give these dates for an Open Season enrollment, change, or premium-conversion election:

Source: Federal Benefits Open Season Highlights, 2027 plan year.

The comparison

Premium, deductible, out-of-pocket maximum, network

Each option in a brochure prices three enrollment types: Self Only, Self Plus One, and Self and Family. The rate page shows a biweekly premium and a monthly premium, split into the government share and your share. Use the column that matches how you pay. Annuitants and many Tribal employees are on the monthly figure.

The premium is not the whole cost. You also pay until you meet the deductible, then a share of later bills, until you hit the out-of-pocket maximum. Read those figures for the same enrollment type, and for in-network care and out-of-network care separately. An HMO usually pays out of network only in an emergency. A preferred-provider plan pays, at a higher share from you.

OPM's comparison tool lists plans by ZIP code, with premiums and a link to each brochure: Compare FEHB plans. PSHB plans are on the same OPM insurance site. The free calculators on this site can add a premium, a deductible, and an out-of-pocket maximum once you have copied those figures out of the brochure.

The documents

Where the brochure and the SBC are

The official statement of benefits is the plan brochure. OPM posts FEHB and PSHB brochures as PDFs under plan information. The 2026 Blue Cross and Blue Shield Service Benefit Plan brochure, for example, is the plan's own statement of benefits for FEP Blue Standard and FEP Blue Basic, and it tells you the rates are on the back cover and a summary of benefits starts near the end (brochure RI 71-005).

That summary inside the brochure is not the same document as the Summary of Benefits and Coverage required by the Affordable Care Act. The same Blue Cross brochure says you can obtain its Summary of Benefits and Coverage at fepblue.org/brochure. Other carriers put the SBC on their own site. Use the brochure for the plan rules and the rate table, and the SBC for the standard coverage examples, and read both for the option you are actually considering.

Before December 14

What to check before the deadline

• Confirm you are in FEHB or PSHB. Postal enrollees use PSHB. The effective dates above are not interchangeable.
• If you want the same enrollment next year, you do not have to file a health-plan change. FSAFEDS still requires a new election.
• If you are changing, compare your share of the premium, the deductible, the out-of-pocket maximum, and whether your doctors are in the network, for Self Only, Self Plus One, or Self and Family.
• If you are adding a family member, OPM requires supporting documents so it can verify eligibility, beginning with this Open Season for plan year 2027. The highlights PDF is the place to start, then your employing office.
• Submit the election in your agency's system, or through the method OPM lists for annuitants, before 11:59 pm on December 14, 2026, in the time zone that system uses.

Enrollment instructions for annuitants are on OPM's enroll page.