Fix Health Care Policy

HSAs Could Bring Health Costs Down; Too Bad Obamacare Destroys Them

Consumer-directed health plans have become increasing popular because of their ability to save consumers money. Breaking research published by Health Affairs shows that if consumer-directed health plans increased as a share of employer-sponsored plans from 12.4 percent to 50 percent, it could save $57.1 billion annually in national health expenditures. The report states, “Savings of this magnitude would account for 7 percent of all health care spending for the population with employer-sponsored insurance and 4 percent for the nonelderly population as a whole.”

The study uses two types of consumer-directed plans to comprise the increased market share: half health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) and half health savings accounts (HSAs). The study shows that if the ever-popular HSAs were to take up the entire 50 percent of market share, savings could reach $73.6 billion, or 9.1 percent of employee health care spending. This is because employees save more money in the high-deductible HSAs than in HRAs. HSAs are funded by both the employer and employee, while HRAs are funded solely by the employer. Thus, any money not spent in a HSA rolls over for the employee to keep, while in an HRA, it is just money the employer did not have to spend.

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: consumer-directed health plans, HSAs, lower costs, Obamacare destroys

Side Effects: If You Like Your HSA, Get Ready to Lose It

Everyone remembers President Obama’s repeated promise, “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period.” Unfortunately, Obamacare breaks this promise many times over. One way is through its medical loss ratio (MLR) requirement and the impact it will have on consumer-driven, high-deductible health plans (HDHP) that include health savings accounts (HSA) in individual and small group markets, a new report from Milliman shows.

The MLR requires that insurance companies spend 80 percent of revenue from premiums on medical claims or anything that improves the quality of health care. The additional 20 percent is for administrative and other non-medically related expenses. If the minimum of 80 percent is not met, the insurer must issue a rebate to the consumer.   (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: broken promises, health savings accounts, HSAs, Milliman, ObamaCare

More Americans Using HSAs—Under Threat from Obamacare

Spending in the U.S. health care system is growing too fast to ignore. Yet, the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (PPACA), also known as Obamacare, does nothing to “bend the cost curve.” Containing health spending requires engaging consumers in their health care expenditures, and one way to achieve this is through high-deductible health plans paired with Health Savings Accounts (HSA), which a recent report shows are gaining in popularity.  (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: bend the cost curve, health savings accounts, high-deductible health plans, HSAs, ObamaCare