Economic Research Initiative on the Uninsured CONFERENCE DRAFT Health Savings Accounts, High-Deductible Policies, and the Uninsured: Simulating the Effects of HSA Tax Policy Using a Utility-Maximization Framework
نویسندگان
چکیده
The Bush administration has proposed aiding the uninsured population by offering tax credits and deductions to consumers outside the employment-based group market who use Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). It is unclear whether such proposals would actually decrease the number of uninsured. Some analysts have argued that these proposals could adversely affect the employment-based market, causing firms to offer less attractive policies to employees or to drop coverage altogether. But analysis is hindered by lack of data and theoretical uncertainty about consumers’ valuation of HSAs and related products. Our research will build on previous work to explore the impact of these proposals on the uninsured. A novel aspect of our approach is a calibration of underlying preference parameters that allow us to simulate how consumers will value products like highdeductible insurance and HSAs. We focus on three groups of particular policy interest: 1) the currently uninsured who do not have access to group coverage, 2) the currently uninsured who have access to group coverage, but choose to be uninsured, 3) the currently insured in group coverage.
منابع مشابه
Health Savings Accounts, Plan Choice, and Health Care Utilization: Simulating the Effects of HSA Introduction in Individual and Group Markets
Many policies and proposals for health care reform involve complex insurance products. For example, the Modernization of Medicare Act (2003) included two innovations: 1) health savings accounts, but only if accompanied with high-deductible health insurance policies; and 2) Medicare Part D coverage for prescription pharmaceutical products with an associated donut-hole. Future proposals are also ...
متن کاملHealth savings accounts: issues and implementation decisions for states.
Although HSAs were legislated through a federal initiative, the availability of qualifying high-deductible health coverage depends partly on states. As the primary regulators of health insurance, states can choose whether to allow insurance companies to sell high-deductible policies. This issue brief covers the key issues that state officials need to know about HSAs—including what they are, how...
متن کاملThe effect of health savings accounts on health insurance coverage.
The authors investigate the potential of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) to expand health insurance coverage. They examine how many currently uninsured people might be encouraged to buy coverage through HSAs, and what the impacts of such actions might be on the group and nongroup health insurance markets. Their main conclusions: HSAs are not likely to be an important contributor to expanding cov...
متن کاملHealth Savings Accounts and High Deductible Health Insurance Plans: Implications for those with High Medical Costs, the Low-Income, and the Uninsured
متن کامل
Economic Research Initiative on the Uninsured CONFERENCE DRAFT Urban/Rural Differences in Excess Mortality Among High Poverty Populations: Evidence from the Harlem Health Survey and Pitt County Hypertension Study
Draft: Please do not cite or quote without permission.
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تاریخ انتشار 2007