More HSAs, but where's the money?
HSAs Triple in 10 Months
America’s Health Insurance Plans
January 26, 2006
At least three million consumers currently receive health coverage through high-deductible health insurance plans offered in conjunction with health saving accounts (HSAs), according to preliminary results of a new study by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).
“HSAs are a remarkable success story and they are proving to be especially attractive to many who might not otherwise be able to afford coverage,” said AHIP president and CEO Karen Ignagni.
http://www.ahip.org/content/pressrelease.aspx?docid=14641
And…
Prognosis Is Mixed for Health Savings
By Milt Freudenheim
The New York Times
January 26, 2006
President Bush has made “consumer-directed” health savings plans a cornerstone of his policy for addressing runaway medical costs, and he plans to push them again in the State of the Union address next week. But so far there is little evidence that the approach is helping many consumers come to grips with the high price of health care.
… in many cases, people have evidently signed up not because they are eager to direct their own medical spending but because the plan looked cheap or they had no other insurance option. And at least half of those enrolled have not put money in their health savings accounts.
Pat Schoeni, executive director of the National Coalition on Health Care, a group seeking better, more affordable medical care, said, “The savings accounts are not designed to help people pay for health care; they are designed to help employers unload their health care costs.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/26/business/26accounts.html
Comment: By Don McCanne, M.D.
One percent of Americans now have health savings accounts, and half of them are not funded. Maybe an empty savings account is affordable, but the care that it will purchase is not.
In his State of the Union address, President Bush will propose the expansion of health savings accounts. Hopefully he’ll explain to us how unfunded accounts will make health care more affordable.