What Large Employers Are Doing
They’re sending their employees to private exchanges, armed with HSAs and HRAs:
Employers are raising deductibles, giving workers health savings accounts that look like 401(k) plans, mimicking the health law’s online insurance marketplaces and nudging patients to compare prices and shop around for treatments. Together the moves could eventually affect far more consumers than the law’s Medicaid expansion or health exchanges aimed at the uninsured and scheduled to open Oct. 1. (Kaiser Health News)
See Walgreen and others.
Good to see that the exchanges are offering HSA’s.
Agreed, hopefully people will begin to realize the options that they have in regards to their health coverage.
They are absolutely the direction we need to head with healthcare.
I wish more people understood about HSAs and that we’d start seeing more people using them. There are a lot of people who don’t even know what they are!
Right, we just need to keep talking about them as the alternative.
Important distinction:
The private exchanges are offering HSAs.
Not the public exchanges.
I guess Obama backed into something good. What are the odds?
Good enough to happen sometime.
backed into the oval office pretty nicely
The deductible increases are a bit shocking…
http://healthblog.ncpathinktank.org/government-accountability-office-confirms-health-insurance-rating-rules-hike-premiums-for-young-people/
wow
The high deductible is not the shock you seem to think it is.
Would you prefere a plan with a $5,000 deductible and pay premium of $349 per month? Or a plan with a $1,000 deductible and pay a premium of $2,000 (or more) per month? I think that’s a no-brainer.
It’s also important to keep in mind that not all options offered thru an exchange will have the same deductible.
But – it’s true everywhere that if you need or want a lesser premium, you will have to choose a plan with lesser coverage – higher deductibles, higher copays, higher coinsurance, etc.
Or, choose a plan with no deductible, that has a separate paid-up benefits rider in order to pay for more risk. Price the product AS IF the deductible was higher.
Don Levit
“Price the product AS IF the deductible was higher.”
Don, you sell it. I’ll think about buying it. (But only if my health deteriorates.)
A middle class family could never afford the deductible of an HSA plan. It is a vehicle to put more money in the pockets of insurance companies through reduced claims and doctors by higher deductible costs. It is not a consumer friendly device.
Erik,
In many cases the reduced premium fully pays for the deductible. The difference is that in paying the premium the money is lost forever, but you may or may not have to pay for your full deductible in a given year.
“A middle class family could never afford the deductible of an HSA plan.”
Well, Erik, it’s like any other form of coverage, a single type won’t necessarily work for everyone. But you need to know that HSA is seeing its greatest growth among middle-class people. There’s a reason for that.
Would you prefer a plan with a $5,000 deductible and pay premium of $349 per month? Or a plan with a $500 or $1,000 deductible and pay a premium of $2,000 (or more) per month? It’s a no-brainer for most people.
As more people – especially middle-class people – do the math, they are coming to the same conclusion. That explains a lot of the growing popularity of HSA plans.
John:
You’re right. It does make sense to raise the deductible, especially if it is funded.
With HSAs, the funding is per dollar, per person.
With paid-up benefits, the funding is much less than per dollar per person, due to the insurance pooling effect.
Don Levit
Nice to see the private market finally catching up.