Health Savings Accounts: Consumer Contribution Strategies & Policy Implications

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J Lowsky ◽  
Donald K.K. Lee ◽  
Stefanos A. Zenios
Keyword(s):  
Policy Implications ◽  
Health Savings Accounts ◽  
Savings Accounts

scholarly journals Health Savings Accounts: Consumer Contribution Strategies and Policy Implications

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 238146831880937
Author(s):  
David J. Lowsky ◽  
Donald K. K. Lee ◽  
Stefanos A. Zenios
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Medical Expenditure Panel Survey ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Medical Expenditure ◽  
Efficient Manner ◽  
Health Savings Accounts ◽  
Savings Accounts ◽  
Dynamic Policy ◽  
Tax Savings ◽  
Care Costs

Background. Health savings accounts (HSAs) are tax-advantaged savings accounts available only to households with high-deductible health insurance. This article provides initial answers to two questions: 1) How should a household budget for its annual HSA contributions? 2) Do current contribution limits provide households with the flexibility to use HSAs efficiently? To answer these questions, we formulate the household’s problem as one of determining a contribution strategy for minimizing total expected discounted medical costs. Methods. We use the 2002–2014 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to develop a novel data-driven model for forecasting a household’s health care costs based on its current cost percentile and other characteristics. A dynamic policy, in which the contribution each year brings the HSA balance up to a household-specific threshold, is derived. This is compared to a simpler static policy in which the target HSA balance is simply the plan’s out-of-pocket maximum, with contributions in any year capped by a limit. Results. We find that: 1) the dynamic policy can save a household up to 19% in costs compared to the static one that is a proxy for typical contribution behavior; and 2) the recommended contribution amounts for 9% to 11% of households in a given year materially exceed what is currently allowed by the federal government. Conclusions. The dynamic policy derived from our data-analytic framework is able to unlock significant tax savings for health care consumers. To allow all households to use HSAs in a tax-efficient manner, a two-tiered contribution policy is needed: Allow unlimited contributions up to some balance, and then impose restrictions thereafter. The resulting impact on overall tax receipts is estimated to be well below what is currently allowed by legislation.

Health Savings Accounts Catching On … Slowly

2008 ◽  
Vol 36 (8) ◽  
pp. 68-69
Author(s):  
ERIK L. GOLDMAN
Keyword(s):  
Health Savings Accounts ◽  
Savings Accounts

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane M. Howard
Keyword(s):  
Health Savings Accounts ◽  
Savings Accounts

scholarly journals Health savings accounts in the United States of America

2020 ◽  
pp. 525-551
Author(s):  
Sherry A. Glied ◽  
Dan P. Ly ◽  
Lawrence D. Brown
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Savings Accounts ◽  
Savings Accounts

The Trouble with Health Savings Accounts: A Social Work Perspective

2006 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 309-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Gorin
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Health Savings Accounts ◽  
Savings Accounts

Health Savings Accounts: Will They Impact Markets?

2007 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 455-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
David P. Richardson ◽  
Jason S. Seligman
Keyword(s):  
Health Savings Accounts ◽  
Savings Accounts

Restraining the Health Care Consumer

2006 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 501-528
Author(s):  
Beatrix Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Medical Insurance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Health Savings Accounts ◽  
Savings Accounts ◽  
Deductible Insurance ◽  
Health Care Consumer ◽  
History Of

Health insurance with high deductibles is an important feature of the Bush administration's health savings accounts initiative. A similar type of insurance, known as major medical, was the most common type of health coverage in the United States from the 1950s through the 1970s. This article traces the history of cost sharing in health insurance from its origins in insurers' concerns about “moral hazard” to the heyday of major medical insurance to the temporary comeback of first-dollar coverage during the era of managed care. Proponents of deductibles and co-payments, today and in the past, have argued that they bring down costs by forcing consumers to make more careful health care choices. The history of major medical insurance, however, shows that high-deductible insurance failed to curb medical inflation and also hurt consumers who expected their coverage to protect their incomes from the costs of sickness and injury.

Not the Next IRA: How Health Savings Accounts Shape Public Opinion

2009 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Barabas
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Health Savings Accounts ◽  
Savings Accounts
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