The Clinton/Obama FEHBP Proposal: Would it work?

Great Debates
1

I’ll state upfront I’m quite ignorant on the subject and I’m asking for my own benefit; this is really more for GQ or IMHO given the subject matter and election tie-in if it gets much notice it’ll end up here anyway, so-

Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (and John Kerry 4 years ago) have stated that their national health care plan is basically the extension of the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) that covers millions of federal employees. (Official FEHBP homepage and sparse wikipedia article.)

Never having been a federal employee I’m not familiar with FEHBP firsthand. It seems to not actually be a health insurance plan but a large family of interconnected available plans. So questions (you don’t have to answer all, just the ones you may know about it):

1- Could somebody please “tell me like I’m 4” how FEHBP works as compared to other plans?

2- Does FEHBP contract with private insurers like BC/BS or is it strictly governmentally backed?

3- If you or someone you know intimately is or has been covered by FEHBP for a major illness or injury, were you satisfied?

4- Does the extension of this to uninsured (or underinsured) Americans seem a feasible option?

Thanks for any info.

2

Why would any of us carry our employer’s plan if we could hitch a ride on a plan where the tax payers are picking up at least 72% of the costs? How large of a tax increase would be required to fund this?