This week USA Today reported that "High-deductible health insurance policies coupled with savings accounts — touted by proponents as an answer to rising medical costs — did not grow in popularity among employers this year, even as premiums for insurance continued to rise."
The Wall Street Journal reported that "Wal-Mart Stores Inc. next year will curtail options it offers newly hired workers for health-care coverage, promoting a low-premium, high-deductible plan. The retailer anticipates its "Value Plan" will let employees with few health-care needs save money through low premiums. Critics, however, argue the shift allows Wal-Mart to cut its costs for health-care benefits and discourage unhealthy people from seeking work at its stores."
And the Minneapolis Star Tribune questioned such plans in an editorial, "Bad medicine for health insurance." An excerpt: "Is it really a powerful new weapon for consumers to control health-care costs, or mostly a new tax shelter for affluent Americans and a marketing tool for insurance companies? Health care experts are still debating the question. But that hasn't stopped House Republicans, who launched the concept three years ago, from heaping a package of new tax advantages onto it this fall. That's a bad idea -- one the federal government can't afford at a time of big budget deficits -- and it should return to Congress' back burner as the fall session winds down this month."
Posted by schwitz at September 29, 2006 09:08 AM | TrackBack