Commentaries
Category: All > Consumer-Directed Health Care
June 17, 2010
Consumer-directed health plans have been useful in controlling the rise of health costs over the last several years, but the survival of these plans is threatened by the new health overhaul law.Mercer’s latest National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans found that major employers held total health benefit cost increases per employee to 5.5 percent in 2009 – the lowest increase in a decade (see chart below). Participation in consumer-directed health plans, as well as health management programs, has been growing over the last few years as companies sought ways to successfully engage employees as partners in managing costs and care.
July 5, 2008
Nearly 98,000 Iowans with health insurance that's compatible with a health savings account could get slapped with new paperwork requirements from Congress. Created in 2004, HSAs are a proven way to make insurance more affordable and to give people more control over their health spending. Today, more than 6 million Americans have these plans, and thanks to HSAs, 1.6 million Americans have left the ranks of the uninsured.
October 17, 2007
The debate will be different this time around. When Hillary Clinton first attempted an overhaul of our health sector, she was no learned hand at politics. But the health plan that her presidential campaign released last month is much more politically attuned and lacks the hubris of those 1,342 pages of legislation the White House dropped on Congress 14 years ago. Today’s talking points (at variance with the actual details of her plan) stress choice, affordable private insurance, and no new government bureaucracy.
Published in National Review Online.
May 14, 2007
It's Friday evening and you suspect that your child might have strep throat or a worsening ear infection. Do you bundle him up and wait half the night in an emergency room? Or do you suffer through the weekend and hope that you can get an appointment with your pediatrician on Monday -- taking time off your job to drive across town for another wait in the doctor's office?
December 22, 2006
Grace-Marie Turner was recently interviewed by Dr. Mike Magee at the Consumer Health World in Washington, D.C. "Health Politics with Dr. Mike Magee" is a weekly Internet-based electronic media program that explores complex topics at the intersection of...
December 10, 2006
The momentum toward giving consumers more power and authority over their health care decisions and spending will continue, but will likely get less of a boost from the 110th Congress, which will focus more on the government's role in the health sector...
November 6, 2006
A list of helpful resources for information about Health Savings Accounts.
September 22, 2006
General Accountability Office: "Early enrollee experiences with health savings accounts and eligible health plans." The GAO found that: HSA-eligible plans and traditional plans covered similar health care services, including preventive...
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