Relatively few uninsured households have enough financial assets to cover the cost-sharing in consumer-driven health plans tied to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), according to this study by Kaiser Family Foundation researchers published as a Health Affairs Web Exclusive on April 15, 2008.

Consumer-driven plans generally require enrollees to pay for most health-care expenses themselves until they reach the plan’s relatively high deductible. At that point, the plan begins to pay at least some of the costs of additional health-care expenses. The plans also permit tax-free contributions to savings accounts that can be used to cover out-of-pocket costs, with unused funds rolling over from one year to the next.

The new study analyzes the asset levels of households with two or more uninsured members in 2004 and compares it to the range of cost-sharing features in HSA-qualified health plans in that year. Assets are an important consideration because low- and moderate-income families may not have adequate income to pay the potentially high cost-sharing under these policies and would have to dip into any savings to pay their bills.

 News Release

 Health Affairs article (abstract)

 Health Affairs article (reprint)