Health Savings Accounts Growing – projected 7 million by Jan 08
Employee Benefits News recently reported on the growth of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) in the US – to 7.2 million by January 2008 from 3.2 million in January 2006. Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) are projected to grow to 5 million from 2.9 million over the same period. That’s 12.2 million people in consumer-directed health plans by the start of next year.
As I noted in a MHPC report on HSAs published last year, my family has an HSA. We now have over $16,000 in our account, far in excess of our deductible. We have become savvy consumers of health care and more focused on the cost and quality of services being used. Yet, we also are financially protected from catastrophic illness. If we had the “traditional