HSAs Enrollees Predicted to Rise to 30 million by 2009
May 13, 2007 | General
Health Savings Accounts are positioned for aggressive growth over the next three years, according to a new report form Mintel. (www.Mintel.com) The report predicts the number of HSA enrollees will increase to 30 million by the end of 2009. This firms research has found that the key feature of HSAs that is particular attractive to consumers is the opportunity for pre-tax savings.The firms research revealed that only one third of respondents would not be interested in a HSA, indicating substantial potential for increasing enrollment through consumer education.
According to Mintel close to one in four respondents some 25% of their respondents know little about HSAs or have not made up their mind about HSAs. The majority of consumers who say they “do not know” fall in the 18-34 age range.
It seems that consumers are still uneducated about HSAs and their benefits. The question becomes how to get information out to consumers on an ongoing basis? Mintel talks about direct-to-consumer marketing efforts although increasing has tremendous room for growth.
According to Mitntel, less than 8.1 million HSA direct mail pieces were sent directly to consumers last year. This however was an 89 percent jump in HSA mail volume compared to first quarter 2007 and to first quarter 2006.
Education seems to be the key. How to get the HSA message through all of the Healthcare messages will be the ongoing challenge for the next couple of years.
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Comment by Kelly May 19, 2007
HSA’s are here to stay if Congress will keep their nose out of it and renew.
Comment by SB Zaiger May 21, 2007
I would like to see more Health Savings Accounts in the US, but I feel the history and savings habits of our citizens has shown that not to be likely. The reason HSA’s will have any sort of consumer demand is through the market place where insurance premiums keep rising for existing forms of coverage. All things being equal in the “broken” state of US health care, consumers will unlikely ’shovel bad dollars after worse’. In other words, spending more on US health care is not going to fix the problems we encounter in our super-expensive, woefully inefficient health care system.
I do feel we need better information about cost, procedure and benefit for the decision-makers of health care…individuals. Once we as individuals step up to the plate and REALISTICALLY assess the value of our hard-earned dollars versus the ‘blind-eye’ approach to treatment, where the patient and individual consumer are passive objects others practice upon, prices will continue to spiral upward with little or no checks upon them.
No, Kelly, HSA’s only have a good shot of surviving IF congress puts there nose into the issue and makes greater tax incentives for ownership. Current laws have no reason to push people toward deferring income, which is what an HSA is. Congress needs to encourage a lot more in the way of migrating US Health Care from one of the worst in the free world to that of one of the best in developed countries. With nearly 17% of our country’s Gross Domestic Product spent on the health of our citizens, more than any other country in the world, why are our citizens so much more unhealthy, sickly, and have early mortality? Does that sound like a good investment?
Comment by Zoltan Zorn June 15, 2007
Kelly & SB, I am a Canadian who has lived 5 years in Florida and have seen the U.S. Healthcare system at work, (Unfortunatley or me).
Until the U.S. system is changed dramatically it will continue to bankrupt people.
HSA’a are a good idea as long as it is a direct deduction off of your paycheque, as most people will not save “Just in Case” a heath issue arises.
I am not saying the Canadian system is perfect, but I happened to have 2 children go through the same Appendectomy Procedure, 1 in Florida, and it cost me out of pocket 4500.00, and I had coverage through Cigna, of which I paid about 300 per Month for.
The other happened to be in Canada and with no other insurance coverage other than our Canadian Medicare System, it cost me 00.00 for the same procedure.
Yes we do pay higher taxes to cover this system, but I don’t need to save or budget in case we get ill.
GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL.
ZZ
http://www.slyseek.com
Comment by Doug Keegan December 9, 2007
In my opinion it almost seems to me that the real winners of the HSA is the insurance and banking industry and here are my reasons. I was offered the opportunity to enroll in a HSA recently for 2008. I did the math using 2007’s numbers for submitted claims with the new 2008 premiums and came to the conclusion that it would save me money plus I would still have some money in the savings account based on my projected contributions.
But it seems to me that the real winner is the insurance company. They basically would have paid no benefit using my 2007 numbers because of the HDHP. I would have had to pay the contracted/discounted rate out of pocket, to my health care providers for only what would equal a 27% less premium. I guess I am trying to figure out when it becomes a disadvantage to the insurance industry because if there was a disadvantage to HSA for the insurance industry that would affect there bottom line they would have never made the HSA available.
The banking industry is the next winner in the HSA product. Now they can charge me a monthly fee for what basically amounts to a regular savings account that only difference I can see is that the money is put into pretax. Next they will try to sell me additional products down the road (once my balance looks enticing enough for them) which I’m sure will lead to some other additional fees and “administrative costs” plus the money they receive from the mutual fund companies they sell funds for.
So overall in my opinion if your healthy and you can get through the first two or three of years in a HSA without any major problems and build up a nice balance it seems advantageous to the consumer just based on cost savings on premiums.
But if you have a lot of known expenses coming up and your deductible is low and the difference in the premium is not major and you can enroll in a FSA then the HSA does not look so great to me the first year.
In my opinion the HSA was created by the insurance and banking industry to increase profits. Because if they didn’t this program wouldn’t even be offered to us. They try and feed you some information about consumers will be more interested in what they pay for there health care and should drive down the rate of annual increases. When all it looks like to me is insurance industry has lowered its exposure to paying out benefits while they will continue to increase the premiums regardless of how much money they are making.
If I am off on any of these points please inform me.