What Does the New GAO Report Tell Us About Actual HSA Use?
Until recently, little or no solid data have been available to assess whether HSAs are being used disproportionately by affluent individuals. The new GAO study breaks new ground, by providing data from the Internal Revenue Service on all Americans who made HSA contributions in 2004. The GAO study also contains data from three large employers who offer both HSA-eligible plans and traditional coverage on which option their employees have chosen. (To supplement these data, the GAO conducted focus groups of individuals at these three firms.) Finally, the GAO reviewed data on enrollment in HSA-eligible plans from several national surveys of employers. As the first solid, broad-based data on actual HSA use by people in different income groups, the GAO findings are now the premier data in the field to determine whether HSAs are being disproportionately used by high-income households. The GAO’s principal findings are: • HSA participants are disproportionately high-income. People with adjusted
