Aren HSAs Primarily for the “Healthy and Wealthy”?
This is a common critique of the left, that since HSAs require considerable out-of-pocket expenses, they won’t appeal to people who are ill and have high health care costs. They further argue that since the money put into an HSA is income-tax free, it will have little appeal to the poor, since they pay little income taxes. They often point to a study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) showing that found that 51% of those opening an HSA in 2004 had incomes $75,000 or more. But other data shows that HSAs have considerable appeal to the sick and those with low income. For example, BlueCross BlueShield survey that looked at HSA holders The survey found that the percentage of those with HSA policies reporting either fair or poor health was similar to those in more traditional plans, suggesting that HSAs are not merely for the healthy. It also shows that the lower cost of an HSA policy appeals to the uninsured: 10% of those who chose HSAs were previously uninsured vs. only 3% of t
