NOTE 10 — HEALTH BENEFIT PROGRAMS

Current Employees

Substantially all of our career employees are covered by the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). OPM administers the program and allocates the cost of the program to the various participating government agency employers. We cannot direct the costs, benefits or funding requirements of the federally sponsored plan and, therefore, account for these costs using multiemployer plan accounting rules.

Our portion of the cost is based upon the weighted average premium cost of the various employee coverage choices and the specific coverage choices made by our employees. Our employees paid approximately 19% of the premium costs in 2009, 18% in 2008 and 17% in 2007. We paid the remainder of employee health care expense, which was $5,294 million in 2009, $5,376 million in 2008, and $5,401 million in 2007.