Why not Health Savings Accounts?
Like the tax subsidies mentioned above, Health Savings Accounts do not fix any of the causes of the health care mess. They do not reduce costs or address the inefficiencies or administrative waste that takes dollars away from patient care. If anything, they exacerbate the problem by taking affluent and healthy people out of the insurance pool and leaving the sick, elderly and low income people, thus driving up the price of insurance. HSAs are individually owned pre-tax accounts used to pay medical expenses. Once the HSA account is depleted and a deductible is met, medical expenses are covered by a “catastrophic” insurance plan (also known as low-cost, high-deductible plans). Healthy individuals tend to be attracted to HSAs, while older, less healthy individuals need more complete benefits. When sicker people are concentrated in the traditional plans because healthier ones opt for HSAs, the cost of premiums rises dramatically. An obvious example of the inequality of HSAs, are that they
Like the tax subsidies mentioned above, Health Savings Accounts do not fix any of the causes of the health care mess. They do not reduce costs or address the inefficiencies or administrative waste that takes dollars away from patient care. If anything, they exacerbate the problem by taking affluent and healthy people out of the insurance pool and leaving the sick, elderly and low income people, thus driving up the price of insurance. HSAs are individually owned pre-tax accounts used to pay medical expenses. Once the HSA account is depleted and a deductible is met, medical expenses are covered by a “catastrophic” insurance plan (also known as low-cost, high-deductible plans). Healthy individuals tend to be attracted to HSAs, while older, less healthy individuals need more complete benefits. When sicker people are concentrated in the traditional plans because healthier ones opt for HSAs, the cost of premiums rises dramatically. An obvious example of the inequality of HSAs are that they s
HSA’s have lost credibility because they fail to treat the underlying cause of our health care problems and actually discourage people from accessing health care until symptoms have turned serious. Like the tax subsidies mentioned above, Health Savings Accounts do not fix any of the causes of the health care mess. They do not reduce costs or address the inefficiencies or administrative waste that takes dollars away from patient care. If anything, they exacerbate the problem by taking affluent and healthy people out of the insurance pool and leaving the sick, elderly and low income people, thus driving up the price of insurance. HSAs are individually owned pre-tax accounts used to pay medical expenses. Once the HSA account is depleted and a deductible is met, medical expenses are covered by a “catastrophic” insurance plan (also known as low-cost, high-deductible plans). Healthy individuals tend to be attracted to HSAs, while older, less healthy individuals need more complete benefits. W
