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 (198 million) and the uninsured (45 million). President Bush is expected to announce new incentives intended to promote HSA enrollment in his State of the Union address Monday.
However, given that there are some 15 million Americans in the individual insurance market it's likely that many of those with the new plans have simply moved from one type of high deductible plan to another. The key question for the growth of the high-deductible plans and HSAs is whether the vast majority of Americans who get their insurance at work move, or are moved, into the plans.
- see this article from The Los Angeles Times
PLUS: The New York Times gives front page treatment to HSAs and other consumer-driven healthcare options, looking at the increasing interest the plans are generating on Wall Street and among major banks. Article