Early Enrollee Experiences with Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and Eligible Health Plans (HDHP)
Consumer-Directed Health Plans
Government Accountability Office (GAO)
August 2006
GAO estimated that HSA-eligible plan enrollees would incur higher annual costs than PPO plan enrollees for extensive use of health care, but would incur lower annual costs than PPO plan enrollees for low to moderate use of health care.
HSA-eligible plan enrollees generally had higher incomes than comparison groups. Fifty-one percent of tax filers reporting HSA contributions had an adjusted gross income of $75,000 or more, compared with 18 percent for all tax filers under age 65 in 2004.
Most participants said they would recommend HSA-eligible plans to healthy consumers. Some participants said they enrolled in the HSA-eligible plan specifically because they did not anticipate getting sick, and many said they considered themselves and their families as being fairly healthy.
However, participants would not recommend these plans to people who use maintenance medication, have a chronic condition, have children, or may not have the funds to meet the high deductible.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06798.pdf
Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
Advocates of health savings accounts (HSA) with their HSA-eligible high-deductible plans (HDHP) refute the challenge that the plans primarily benefit the healthy and wealthy. They claim that they are suitable for everyone, including low-income individuals with greater health care needs.
The claim of opponents of HSAs that they benefit the healthy and wealthy is based specifically on the design of the plans. These plans use regressive tax policies that benefit the wealthy but not the poor. They also provide an additional retirement benefit, but only for those who remain healthy and are able to fund the accounts.
This GAO study confirms that the healthy-wealthy benefit of the plans is recognized by the participants. Not only do they understand the benefit for themselves, but they also understand the disadvantages for those with greater health care needs. The healthy and wealthy do not recommend these plans for the sick and poor. This GAO report should put an end to that debate.
Health policies that take good care of the healthy but not the sick are irrational. It’s time to abandon these policies and to become serious about adopting policies that would ensure that the sick will always have affordable access to the health care that they need. It’s time for national health insurance.