Issue 696 HSA's the future of HC October 9, 2015

An HSA is a Health Savings Account.  It is basically a credit card or even in some cases a debit card given by your insurance company or workplace that helps to pay the copays for doctor's visits and for your medicines at the pharmacy.  In my opinion it is the future of insurance, and here is my reasons why.

HSA's:  An HSA as I Stated is an account with money in it.  It is thus flexible in what it can purchase.  Therefor it can purchase medicines that would not be covered by your insurance.  A doctor not on your plan, then use your HSA to pay the full cost.  If you have a massive copay, then the HSA can cover that too.  Money you put in, your employer puts in and even the insurance puts in all helps to pay for your doctor and drugs.  It basically eliminates the need for approvals and disapprovals by insurance companies with the tradeoff of you having a limited amount of money to spend on the card.  My HSA has about $2,000 a year put on it, but I am healthy which means I hardly spend it.  What also helps is that the money (depending on the plan) acts like a bank account where the money rolls over per year allowing you to continue growing your HSA account.  It essentially rewards you for being healthy (so long as no caps on how much the account can grow are put in place).

HSA's are also cheaper for insurance companies and your workplace.  They do not have to worry about processing fees and taxes associated with traditional insurance.  Also, as they are placing only a certain amount of money per year in the account, which they can plan for and not worry about coverage for other more expensive medications that otherwise would cause their costs to rise (those costs are what you pay as a consumer).  Basically, your ability to budget yourself is what they are counting on, for you will see the larger costs due to the higher co-pays and out of pocket costs, and thus seek to use the cheaper options which saves your workplace and the insurance company’s money.

This also has the added benefit of making drugs and doctors’ visits cheaper.  By eliminating the fees, taxes and manpower associated with regular insurance, the costs at a doctor's office and pharmacy goes down as they can now afford to charge less.  Additionally, by allowing for higher co-pays and out of pocket costs for the most expensive medications, it shifts patients toward the cheaper options.  Pharmaceutical companies thus will lower their prices as much as possible so that they do not lose profit from their more expensive drugs.  This is all do to HSA's making the market for medicine more individual, and thus the market will accommodate the changes brought on by this which advances the power of you the consumer.  

Conclusion:  These are the reasons why HSA's are so good.  They eliminate denials, and paperwork and other components of healthcare that would otherwise make healthcare far more expensive.  With its natural impact on the market to also make drugs and doctors cheaper, it means all forms of healthcare will slowly become much more affordable as well.  So what say you?  Shouldn't more people be given HSA’s?