Indiana has released a report on the state usage of Healthcare Savings Accounts. The news is not good for democrats. The use of HAS’s as part of the choice in state employee health coverage has reduced costs. The savings has been seen across the board. The employees are given $2750 in an account that they are to use for out of pocket expenses. The costs above this amount are then covered by health insurance. The premiums for the health insurance are covered by the state. Mitch Daniels, the Governor of Indiana has written an OP-ED piece on the findings of the states costs. I use a plan similar to this. I have a $5,000 deductible and a $5,000 HSA.
With this plan I make choices about the type of services I use and how much I pay for them. I do shop around for the best costs. I will always ask for the generic version of any prescriptions that I need, and if time permits, I will call around to different pharmacies to check costs. I have found that Target and Costco are generally the cheapest. I have saved as much as $30 on one prescription by using Target instead of going to CVS. The reality is that had the money not been coming out of my own pocket, I would go to the closest pharmacy. I wouldn’t care how it much cost the insurance company, while it does affect me by higher premiums, I never thought about it.
I have changed doctors on one occasion as well. It was not that I didn’t like the doctor, but I didn’t particularly love the guy either. He was efficient, and I would get the services that I needed. But I found three other doctors that would charge me less money for the same services, even the wait time I had to get an appointment had decreased. So, I shopped around and found a better service for less money.
In the past four years that I have had this insurance policy I have only used my insurance in one year, that was the year that I had to get treatments for a brush with breast cancer. In every other year my HSA covered all of my costs and then some. My pot of available funds to use for health costs has increased over time. I have also lowered my tax liability by using this plan. It is win win. My insurance company has less liability for unnecessary expenses, I have the coverage that works for me, and much to my surprise my premium for 2010 has actually gone down. My open season is March, so I have just gotten my premium paperwork for the next year.
The democrats have said over and over again that people will be able to keep the same coverage that have if they are happy with it. I am very happy with my coverage, if this plan passes as currently written, I may not be able to keep this plan any longer as HSA’s will much more difficult to use. The services that you are allowed to get reimbursed for will be severely limited. I will be forced to go and look for a more traditional plan, which will actually increase not only my costs, but will also increase the costs of the insurance company. How exactly is the new government plan going to save me money?
you are just affirming everything i have been saying with a few added benefits of hsa's.
i've been advocating this idea of hsa's forever, it seems. i started writing about it way back in December. people have to get away from this mindset that health care costs automatically means health insurance costs.
hsa's can benefit the individual in so many more ways than just the costs of medical care savings.
if people would incorporate hsa's with their retirement plans they'd end up with a very nice little nest egg.
A belief in the written constitution. The belief that we are responsible for ourselves and for our families. The belief that we are allowed to fail. The belief in a strong national defense are a few of the things that make me just a conservative girl.
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
"I say this not to the teachers, but to their unions: If education were a war, you would be losing it. If it were a business, you would be driving it into bankruptcy. If it were a patient, it would be dying." Bob Dole
Yes, House Republicans have been in power for 5 hours and they have not passed their entire agenda. The New York Times things they should be canned and Democrats put back in charge. Don Surber
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"So I say huzzah to the 112th congress for reading the Constitution, for acting like it matters. It does. The Constitution may not be sacred, but the sacred has no better friend than the Constitution." Pat Archibold
"53% of Democrats have a postive view of socialism. 100% of republicans think those 53% are morons." Mark Levin
"Corrupt the young. Get them away from religion. Get them interested in sex. Make them superficial; destroy their ruggedness." First plank of the communist strategy for revolution - confiscated in Dusseldorf, Germany in 1919
"If you believe this isn't going to cost the government anything, you are likely to see leprechauns riding on unicorns with pots of gold circling the capitol" Rep. Devin Nunes, CA-21 on healthcare "reform".
"Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views". William F. Buckley, Jr.
"The Republicans were laughing and waving the American flag, and I thought that was ourtrageous behavior" Maxine Waters
"The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." Norman Thomas
I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress. Frederick Douglas
Don't go around saying that the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. Mark Twain
I freed thousands of slaves, and could have freed thousands more, if they had known they were slaves. Harriet Tubman
But I think the most important thing I have figured out was how not to lose hope even when things are bad and it feels like it won't get better. It will get better. You just have to keep working at it and moving forward. Homeless & Conservative
The way to crush the middle class is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation. Vladimer Lenin
There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal. F.A. Hayek
3 comments:
Oooo. Patients price shopping on their own? What an awesome capitalistic idea! And good for the market.
you are just affirming everything i have been saying with a few added benefits of hsa's.
i've been advocating this idea of hsa's forever, it seems. i started writing about it way back in December. people have to get away from this mindset that health care costs automatically means health insurance costs.
hsa's can benefit the individual in so many more ways than just the costs of medical care savings.
if people would incorporate hsa's with their retirement plans they'd end up with a very nice little nest egg.
you also get a hat tip on this one on my latest post today also, me lady. i thank ya.
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