deductible plans

The Boston Globe reports that Jon Kingsdale, an executive with Tufts Health Plan, is the most likely candidate to lead the organization charged with heading insurance reform in Massachusetts. Kingsdale is currently a senior vice president of policy development at Tufts. Kingsdale would head the Health Insurance Connector, the state-run organization charged with implementing Gov. Mitt Romney's reform plan. Under Romney's widely-praised proposal, all residents would be required to …

The final day of the World Health Care Congress focused on the Bush administration's plans for reforming the health insurance market. Both Treasury Secretary John Snow and healthcare point man Allan Hubbard pushed the notion of high-deductible plans coupled with HSAs, although Hubbard admitted that there were significant challenges making them work for the chronically ill whom he said accounted for two to five percent of the population. Refreshingly, he invited disagreement from the …

> The AARP released a report on pharmaceutical prices that notes that the cost of brand-name prescription drugs rose 6.5 percent in 2005. Article

> Years after September 11, a majority of those who survived the attack on the World Trade Centers are experiencing problems rangina from respiratory illness to severe mental health issues. …

Residents of California and six other states who have enrolled in health savings accounts may get a shock when tax time rolls around, the Los Angeles Times reports. Health savings accounts allow users to shield as much as $5,540 before federal taxes to pay for out-of-pocket expenses. California is among the states that have refused to honor the exemption for the new high-deductible plans. As a result, many Californians will find their state taxable income is thousands of dollars …

Advocates of consumer driven healthcare plans (CDHPs) are pointing to a wellness program at a South African company as a potential model for the U.S. The program uses an intricate point system to reward plan members for taking good care of themselves, sweetening the pot with discounts on travel, hotel stays and electronics. Plan members can rack up points by going to the gym regularly (with points accruing with each visit), participating in smoking cessation programs, or maintaining their …

A new insurance industry report finds that the number of people enrolled in high deductible, low-premium plans which qualify for health savings accounts has approximately tripled over the last ten months. America's Health Insurance Plans, the insurance industry trade group, calls that growth "a real success." About three million people are now signed up in variants of such plans. Total enrollment still represents a fraction of the number of those enrolled in conventional insurance plans …

A new report confirms similar findings that Americans enrolled in high deductible or consumer-driven health plans are less satisfied than those with traditional HMO or PPO coverage. The Commonwealth Fund and the Employee Benefit Research Council found that 63 percent of those with comprehensive coverage described themselves as "satisfied," while fewer than half with varying types of high-deductible plans were happy. They were also more likely to put off obtaining healthcare and had higher …

This week two studies confirmed that employment based health insurance, or the lack of it, is becoming a political issue. Harris Interactive's poll of employees (reported in FierceHealthcare today) shows that American workers continue to view health insurance as a crucial employee benefit. In addition, while they perceive other aspects of compensation such as pay to be …

The national drive for consumer-driven health plans (CDHP) is having mixed results. A new study of the plans by consultancy McKinsey finds that the plans are doing a better job of providing preventative care than traditional plans. On the other hand, many consumers are reporting difficulties finding the accurate information necessary to make informed healthcare decisions. That may be the most serious obstacle the high-deductible plans face. Only 44 percent of the consumers interviewed by …