Say Good-bye to Your HSA & High Deductible–Low Premium Health Care Plans

The best change to the Health Insurance Industry has been the high deductible, Health Savings Accounts.  Not only do Health Savings Accounts (H.S.A.) curb the abuse and overuse of medical services, encourage market place shopping for service and products, the premiums are affordable and the money deposited in your H.S.A. is yours!  These funds stay in your account and are used for co-pays, deductibles, health incendiaries, prescriptions, you name it.  Plus!, whatever’s left in the plan is still yours.

The traditional health insurance plan’s are like owning a boat, you dump a “heck-of-a-lot-of-moola” into them, for very little return, unless you need serious medical care.

The thought that H.S.A.’s will be lost to the consumer is tragic and will likely keep many families awake at night, trying to figure out how they are going to afford to pay for health insurance that they don’t use, and still have to pay out of pocket for their co-pays and deductibles, with no benefit to themselves.  You might as well not be insured and save the monthly insurance premium, then wait until something tragic happens to get on insurance.  The Obama Administration says that this is not their intention, but the structure of Obamacare encourages the exact behavior they say they want to prevent.

YiT,  Shelly

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ObamaCare Rule May Bar HSAs, Low-Cost Health Plans

By DAVID HOGBERG , INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Posted 12/07/2011 06:53 PM ET

"If you are among the hundreds of millions of Americans who already have health insurance through your job, or Medicare, or Medicaid, or the VA,... View Enlarged Image

A new Obama administration rule could drive out of the market the low-cost, high deductible plans that are supposed to be available under ObamaCare. That would likely mean a sharp jump in taxpayer subsidies.

The problem stems in large part from contradictions in the hastily written health care overhaul.

Starting in 2012, ObamaCare requires insurers in the individual or small group (small business) market to spend at least 80% of premiums on medical costs, leaving 20% for salaries, advertising, fraud prevention, profit, etc. For large groups, this medical loss ratio (MLR) must be 85%.

But another section of the law establishes the actuarial value of plans that can be sold on exchanges, which will cater to individuals and small groups. A bronze plan is allowed to have an actuarial value of 60%, meaning the insurer pays 60% of health care costs and the policyholder 40%. A silver plan can have a 70% value. Lower-actuarial plans tend to have lower MLR requirements. Click here to read the full story.

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