Hello and welcome to this installment of the Weekly Health Insurance News Roundup. In this installment, we’ll look at a few articles that have to do with money and health care or health insurance, usually regarding how to save it, which is something everyone is concerned with these days. Our first article comes to us from the Charlotte Observer and is entitled, “Savings accounts may be future of health care.”
According to the article, local business leaders are noticing that, while still a small percentage, health savings accounts are becoming increasingly more and more popular, and enrollment is growing quickly. According to the article, around eight million people have health savings accounts, up over thirty percent from the previous year and a seven-fold increase from 2005.
People are finding health savings accounts attractive for several reasons. First, the money put into this accounts, whether by themselves or through their companies, is entirely theirs. Secondly, since they have a finite amount of money to spend, since they have a finite amount of money to spend on their health care, which makes them spend both more wisely and more efficiently. This, in turn, helps people save money, due to more finite control and better awareness of their health care spending budget. Overall, as health savings accounts become more popular, it’ll be interesting to see how these fit into any plans for health insurance and health care reform in the future.
Our next article comes from Kiplinger.com, and is entitled, “3 Things to Avoid When Trying to Cut Health Costs.” This article looks at, incidentally, three things one could look at when trying to save money on their health insurance costs. The first of these is premiums, and the article suggests not focusing too much on the price of the plan premium. According to the article, paying a lower premium for a health insurance plan with less coverage can cost you more in the long run due to having to pay more for medical expenses should they occur. This leads to their second point, coverage. The article suggests that buying high-deductible health insurance coverage could save you a lot of money in the long run, even though you might have to pay a higher up-front deductible. Finally, the article suggests being wary of COBRA, since it can get very expensive after subsidies end.
Our final article takes another tack on this issue. It’s from the Miami Health Examiner and is entitled, “Beverage tax considered to fund health insurance.” According to the article, Miami residents are paying the most money for their health insurance out of anyone in the nation. Apparently a family of four there in 2008 paid $20,282 for health care costs. Lawmakers there are therefore considering taxes on alcohol and sweetened beverages — two things alone that can cause their own health care problems — to help pay for skyrocketing health care costs. I honestly think this is a very interesting idea, but whether it takes off is anyone’s guess.
This concludes this issue of the Weekly Health Insurance News Roundup. I hope you have found it informative, and until next time, have a happy and healthy day.