Increasingly, benefits brokers and personal-finance experts are advising people use cash to pay for health care and investing the HSA funds for decades.
Read MoreThe deal, expected to close in the fourth quarter, includes about $500 million in client assets held in about 157,000 accounts associated with more than 3,000 employer groups.
Read MoreNearly half of Americans with private insurance—47%—are covered by high-deductible plans, up from 25% in 2010. That’s driven up out-of-pocket health spending among people with employer coverage—from $493 in 2007 to $792 in 2017.
The National Business Group on Health is projecting the total cost of providing medical and pharmacy benefits to increase 5 percent for the fifth consecutive year in 2018.
An annual survey by the benefits consulting firm Mercer found that, among 75 Hoosier employers, 34 percent of workers are already enrolled in consumer-directed health plans. And that number is only going to go up due to new Obamacare rules.
Health insurance has long been a business-to-business endeavor between insurers, employers, hospitals and doctors. Patients received benefits, but they weren’t really customers. That’s all about to change.
With premiums for health insurance likely to head north next year as President Obama’s health care reform law fully takes effect, both individuals and employers will pay for more health care out of their own funds and buy less insurance.
Sizable Indianapolis companies like the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, consumer-ratings service Angie’s List, Marsh and Wilhelm Construction have switched to consumer-directed health plans. There’s some evidence nationally that the trend is set to accelerate.
Federal health reform will trump an Indiana law that allows health insurers to offer steep discounts to employers with healthy workers and which institute aggressive wellness programs, but experts say other provisions will motivate small firms.
The state’s Dec. 1 takeover of Medical Savings Insurance Co. marks the formal crumbling of J. Patrick Rooney’s network of
health care reform efforts.
Consumer-driven health plans will lead to greater medical expenses later because people avoid going to the doctor now.
The “father of health savings accounts” isn’t satisfied. At 80, J. Patrick Rooney is gearing up for another health care reform
battle in Washington–five years after winning a colossal victory when Congress awarded health savings accounts tax-free status.
Marsh Supermarkets Inc.’s decision to offer its employees a health reimbursement account as their only health insurance option
this year has captured the attention of local employers and benefits consultants.
