Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

HSA’s Intended Purpose Backfiring, Pt.2 -- The Abusers

As reported by the research arm of industry group America's Health Insurance Plans, over 6.1 million people have HSA-eligible plans. That figure is growing rapidly, as of recent. At the same time, the ranks of those without health insurance are swelling also. The most recent figures from the Census Bureau show that, even back in 2006 there were 47 million without health insurance, that up from 39 million in the year 2000. As Ms. Baribeau points out, these figures may be too conservative because persons who are covered with health insurance any part of the year were not counted as uninsured.  As the trend grows rapidly, most of those dropping out in 2006 would have not have been counted as uninsured for that year. With an anticipated accelerating rate, today’s figures are almost certainly much higher than those. This greatly compounds the problem of HSA abuse.

Ms. Baribeau’s article goes on to say that the supporters of HSAs argue that, “because the GAO had relied largely on data from the second year of the program, the report might not accurately reflect current HSA usage. They say "HSAs make health insurance more accessible by allowing individuals and employers to buy into health insurance plans with lower premiums and would discourage people from buying unnecessary medical services.”  The obvious problem is that "the invisible hand” simply did not “guide health care decisions” prudently.  Many people will forgo preventive treatment, then end up needing more expensive health care that should have been prevented.

Continued…