Enrollment in聽 grew 18 percent last year as employers continued to steer workers into high-deductible medical plans, an insurance聽group said this morning.
HSA membership rose from 11.4 million in January 2011 to 13.5 million in January 2012, with most聽of the growth occurring聽in plans offered by large employers,聽according to an by America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry lobby. Since 2008 HSA membership has more than doubled.
Created by legislation in 2003, HSAs let聽employers and workers聽make tax-free contributions to finance out-of-pocket medical costs. They differ from the聽better-known flexible-spending health accounts because with HSAs unspent money can be rolled over from one year to the next. Leftover money in聽flex accounts聽reverts to the plan sponsor.
Also, HSAs always are paired with 聽insurance coverage — at least $1,200 for individuals and $2,400 for families. Deductibles are what patients spend before聽insurance kicks in. The idea behind HSAs is to contain medical inflation and make patients smarter consumers by giving them a bigger聽stake in health-care purchases. Critics, however,聽contend that such “consumer-directed” health plans are聽simply a way for employers to shift costs to workers.
Today’s AHIP report doesn’t include health reimbursement arrangements, another kind聽of spending聽account聽that’s usually聽paired with a high deductible plan. Last year 17 percent of U.S. workers with employer-based insurance were enrolled in an HSA or an HRA,聽. 聽(KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation)
States with the highest portion of HSA enrollees were Vermont, at 20 percent; Minnesota, with 14 percent; and Montana and Utah, both with 12 percent.聽Fifty-nine percent of HSA enrollment was in large-group plans, up from 55 percent last year.聽AHIP surveyed 97 insurance companies for its census.
