Health Savings Accounts Lead the Change in 2017. In the first real month if healthcare reform discussion in Washington, new plans are beginning to take shape, but one common denominator exists: The expansion of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Speaker Paul Ryan is leading the charge with plans to provide higher annual limits, more portability, more participation for spouses, and more protection from bankruptcy.
High Deductible Health Plans coupled with HSAs have become popular during the last decade with over 20 million Americans participating in HSAs in 2016. This number has grown from 3.2 million customers just ten years ago. HSAs also take some of the burden off the employer shoulders, as HSAs are individually owned, and empower employees to use their own money and to shop for healthcare services.
While the insurance industry has made many advances with respect to revealing the true cost of care, we are still in the infancy stage with transparency. What I hope will happen over the next 24 months, is more emphasis on what services really cost, and create a more competitive consumer climate.
What we haven’t’ seen out of the prior or current administration, is a move to make the cost of healthcare more affordable. To date, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and the Republican Repeal mantra, has done nothing to lower healthcare costs, rather it has become the vehicle for providing more mandates, with an attempt to get more people covered.
Stay tuned for more insight on healthcare reform.
