•11:56 AM
As was just discussed, there need to be options for the American consumer to choose in health care.
In the reformed world of free market forces, those options so far include:
1. Health insurance purchased in a market that truly competes
2. Health security through a co-op or HealthShare
3. Remain uninsured by using the formula discussed in my past post
There is another product that exists that could become 3a: Health Savings Accounts.
Currently, health savings accounts are attached to a high deductible health insurance plan. This is further evidence of the entire monopoly that insurance companies enjoy over our health care market. There are tremendous benefits to HSAs and those benefits need to passed onto more than just the insured.
Michael Cannon of the CATO Institute, in his paper, "Large Health Savings Accounts: A Step toward Tax Neutrality for Health Care," proposed making some changes to HSA's which would encourage more competition and therefore drive prices down to a competitive level. His proposals are as follows:
1. Increase HSA contribution limits dramatically. For illustrative purposes, assume the maximum annual contribution limits would be roughly tripled, from $2,850 to $8,000 for individuals and from $5,500 to $16,000 for families.
2. Remove the requirement that HSA holders be covered by a qualified high-deductible health plan. HSAs would be open to those covered by any type of insurance, as well as the uninsured.
3. Allow HSA holders to purchase health insurance, of any type and from any source, tax-free with HSA funds.
Cannon writes, "Restructuring the exclusion for employer-sponsored health benefits in this way would enable more individuals to obtain health insurance that matches their preferences, would increase efficiency in the health care sector, and could reduce inequities created by the exclusion. These changes also offer a means of limiting the currently unlimited tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health benefits that may be more politically feasible than past proposals. " He concludes: "Large HSAs could serve as a step toward a tax system that offers no preferred treatment to health expenditures, and thereby forces the health care sector to accomplish more with the resources devoted to it (Footnote 1)."
This option, tied to the one previously discussed, would create a truly viable option for the uninsured. Such an expansion of the HSA could be an additional product that would bring more competition, and therefore greater options at lower prices, to the consumer.
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Footnotes
1. http://www.bepress.com/fhep/11/2/3/
In the reformed world of free market forces, those options so far include:
1. Health insurance purchased in a market that truly competes
2. Health security through a co-op or HealthShare
3. Remain uninsured by using the formula discussed in my past post
There is another product that exists that could become 3a: Health Savings Accounts.
Currently, health savings accounts are attached to a high deductible health insurance plan. This is further evidence of the entire monopoly that insurance companies enjoy over our health care market. There are tremendous benefits to HSAs and those benefits need to passed onto more than just the insured.
Michael Cannon of the CATO Institute, in his paper, "Large Health Savings Accounts: A Step toward Tax Neutrality for Health Care," proposed making some changes to HSA's which would encourage more competition and therefore drive prices down to a competitive level. His proposals are as follows:
1. Increase HSA contribution limits dramatically. For illustrative purposes, assume the maximum annual contribution limits would be roughly tripled, from $2,850 to $8,000 for individuals and from $5,500 to $16,000 for families.
2. Remove the requirement that HSA holders be covered by a qualified high-deductible health plan. HSAs would be open to those covered by any type of insurance, as well as the uninsured.
3. Allow HSA holders to purchase health insurance, of any type and from any source, tax-free with HSA funds.
Cannon writes, "Restructuring the exclusion for employer-sponsored health benefits in this way would enable more individuals to obtain health insurance that matches their preferences, would increase efficiency in the health care sector, and could reduce inequities created by the exclusion. These changes also offer a means of limiting the currently unlimited tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health benefits that may be more politically feasible than past proposals. " He concludes: "Large HSAs could serve as a step toward a tax system that offers no preferred treatment to health expenditures, and thereby forces the health care sector to accomplish more with the resources devoted to it (Footnote 1)."
This option, tied to the one previously discussed, would create a truly viable option for the uninsured. Such an expansion of the HSA could be an additional product that would bring more competition, and therefore greater options at lower prices, to the consumer.
____________________________
Footnotes
1. http://www.bepress.com/fhep/11/2/3/
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