NEW YORK, June 6 (UPI) -- Many consumers seeking high-deductible health insurance may find it more costly to purchase a plan that offers a health savings account.
The Wall Street Journal reports that as healthcare premiums rise, the Bush administration as well as insurers have encouraged HSAs as a way to deal with costs. Consumers have recently been urged to opt for high deductible plans -- cheaper plans that require more upfront payment of medical costs. To make the plan attractive, an HSA is set in which the enrollee stockpiles money for medical expenses that may come up.
The problem is that not all plans are "HSA eligible," reports the Journal. In some cases, plans that aren't HSA-eligible have lower premiums with similar deductibles.
Jay Moorhead, a spokesman for the Maryland-based insurer Coventry Health Care Inc., told the Journal, "If the starting assumption is that the HSA product is always going to be less expensive than a non-HSA product, I think that's a flawed assumption."
