How to Make HSAs Actually Work

By FRED TROTTER First, let me candidly admit that I have no idea if putting Health Savings Accounts (HSAs for short) at the center of the Trump healthcare rework is a good idea. I do, however, have some insights into what made Bush-era HSA plans fail. Bush-era HSA’s were unavailable to many Americans, because their health insurance companies and employers ultimately made the decision about whether they would be able sign up for an HSA. Many employers elected not to participate in HSA’s by not purchasing health plans that “came with an HSA”. I was working at the UT School of Biomedical Informatics during the Bush administration’s attempt to deploy HSA’s. I wanted to research and understand how HSA’s would impact the healthcare system, and I knew that the first step was to sign up for one myself.  But the University of Texas health plan at the time did not offer an HSA. A little investigation showed that I could not just go to any bank and sign up for an HSA. If I had been able to get an HSA, then I would have been able to take it to another employer if I changed jobs… apparently. I am not really sure because I was never able to sign up for one. If they are going to work as a mechanism for healthcare reform, HSA’s must be ubiquitous. In order to be ubiquitous they need to operate smoothly and at the convenience of the consumers, rather than the insurance companies or employers. To be smooth, HSA’s are going to have the following characteristics: An...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs