Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Examines Popularity Of High Deductible Health Plans

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Sunday examined "the lagging popularity of high-deductible health plans." According to the Post-Gazette, a recent survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust showed "little evidence of a dramatic shift toward" health savings accounts that are combined with high-deductible plans (Snowbeck, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/1). The survey finds that about 4% of employees with health insurance in 2006 are enrolled in consumer-driven health plans, such as high-deductible plans that qualify for HSAs or health reimbursement arrangements. About 7% of employers that provided health insurance for employees in 2006 offered consumer-driven health plans, the survey finds. An estimated 2.7 million employees are enrolled in consumer-driven plans in 2006: 1.4 million are enrolled in high-deductible plans with HSAs, compared with about 800,000 in 2005, and 1.3 million are enrolled in HRAs, which is statistically the same as the 1.6 million in 2005, according to the survey (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 9/27).

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Jon Gabel, vice president for the Center for Studying Health Systems Change, said high-deductible health plans with HSAs can be complicated and risky. Gabel added that employees who enroll in high-deductible health plans with HSAs often have more education, higher incomes and a history of relatively few medical claims. However, America's Health Insurance Plans spokesperson Mohit Ghose said that about one-third of new enrollees in high-deductible health plans with HSAs in the individual or small-group health insurance markets previously lacked health insurance or worked for companies that previously did not offer coverage. Ghose added that high-deductible health plans with HSAs "play an important function" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/1).


"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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