Full Citation

Title: Health Saving Accounts Under the Affordable Care Act: Challenges and Opportunities for Consumer-Directed Health Plans

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2014

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Abstract: Nearly four years after the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and nearly one year after its first open enrollment period, many key provisions of the legislation are still just beginning to come into focus. Policy expertscritics and friends of the law alikeexpect the laws rocky rollout and uneven implementation (i.e., the delay of the employer mandate until 2015 and the extension of some non-ACA-compliant individual policies until 2016) to produce significant uncertainty in the non-group health-insurance market for several years. One critical area of uncertainty before the launch of health-insurance exchanges was how the law would affect a fast-growing alternative to traditional health plans, called Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). HSAs are paired with high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) and allow funds to be used pretax for out-of-pocket health expenditures. Consumers trade off higher deductibles under these plans in return for lower monthly premiums and tax-advantaged, out-of-pocket spending; the savings can be substantial and can be rolled over, year after year. Services above the deductible are often covered entirely by insurance.

Url: http://www.manhattan-institute.org/pdf/mpr_18.pdf

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Authors: Howard, Paul; Feyman, Yevgeniy

Publisher: Center for Medical Progress at the Manhattan Institute

Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS CPS, IPUMS Health Surveys - NHIS

Topics: Health, Other

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