HSAs To Grow In Popularity Brokers Say
NU Online News Service, June 3, 9:40 a.m. EDT?Employers are showing more interest in high-deductible Health Savings Accounts as a possible solution to the rapidly rising cost of workers' health care, according to a broker association survey.[@@]
The Washington, D.C.-based Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers released the results of its survey during its Employee Benefits Leadership Forum held this week in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. The results were part of the CIAB's semi-annual benefits marketplace survey. The survey is based on the response of about 100 brokers from across the country, CIAB said.
Fifty-five percent of brokers responding to the survey predicted HSAs would be a significant or very significant coverage option for private employers, and 29 percent said they thought the new plans would be moderately important. The brokers said one key to the popularity of the new program is the government's planned use of an HSA option in federal workers' health plans.
The brokers said it will take time before there is wide acceptance of HSAs, which are employee savings plans that can offset expenses incurred before high deductibles are met. They also could be used for post-retirement medical expenses.
CIAB said several brokers expressed the belief that HSA's would benefit white-collar workers more than blue-collar and lower-wage workers.
The survey also showed that the average premium for group medical coverage has increased 10-30 percent for nearly three-quarters of all small accounts since the last survey in November 2003.
Nearly three-quarters of the medium-sized accounts saw their premium rates increase 10-20 percent. Thirty-nine percent of large accounts experienced increases of 1-10 percent, and 39 percent also reported increases of 10-20 percent.
The most frequent tool used by employers to offset those rising costs continues to be a pass-through of costs to employees, either through higher deductibles and co-pays or increased employee contributions to the cost of coverage, prescription drug co-pays, and up-front hospital and outpatient co-pays.
Most employers still are resisting limiting a worker's out-of-network options or shifting to either consumer-driven or defined-contribution plans, the survey showed, and it is even rarer for an employer who is offering health care coverage to drop that benefit altogether.
Group life insurance rates remained predominantly flat or experienced only small increases in the 1-10 percent range for all sizes of accounts, the survey showed.
Employees are most likely to buy life insurance, dental insurance or vision care coverage as a voluntary benefit offered through the workplace, with short-term and long-term disability insurance as the next most popular voluntary benefit products for employees. Catastrophic medical coverage or long term care insurance is the least likely benefit to be purchased in the workplace.
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