Health Access - Talking Points: High Deductible Health Plans & HSAs

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Talking Points: High Deductible Health Plans & HSAs
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President Bush’s proposals call for $11.8 billion annually in tax credits for consumers and employers who store money in Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). In order to store money in an HSA, consumers must enroll in a high-deductible health plan (HDHP). These plans have a minimum deductible of $1,050 for individuals, or $2,100 for families.

Despite of what proponents of Bush’s proposal say, encouraging high-deductible plans exacerbate the nation’s dysfunctional and expensive health care system, leaving more people underinsured and paying more for less health care.

High Deductible Health Plans jeopardize patient health.

Plans are not required to pay for preventive care. Consumers, forced to pay the full price of office visits, could choose to forgo preventive care, such as breast exams or immunizations.
Consumers with chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes could ration or go without necessary treatments to keep their diseases at bay.

Consumers have no way to shop around for care.

The premise behind high-deductible plans is that consumers would be forced to be more cost-conscious about their health care – shopping around for less costly treatments.
California HealthCare Foundation conducted a mystery shopper survey at California hospitals; 622 mystery shoppers had to endure a maze of phone transfers, voicemail messages and call backs before some could receive price information; many didn’t even get a price.
Consumers who need medical help in an emergency don’t have time, or emotional wherewithal to shop around.
Virtually no information about the quality of medical services exists anywhere – a key factor for consumers who want to shop around.
We are asking individual patients to use their bargaining power to bring down costs when large purchasers, like CALPERS and employers, have struggled to do it.

HDHPs would result in higher health care costs – not lower – for all consumers.

Delaying preventive care and disease maintenance only makes patients sicker, and subsequent treatments to undo the damage more costly.
Out-of-pocket costs will be high for high-deductible plan enrollees, a population that can least afford this burden.
Does not address the true cost drivers behind escalating costs of health care. For 10 percent of the population that uses 64 percent of health care dollars, HDHPs will make no difference.
Could potentially break up health care market to the healthy (who would find HDHPs more attractive) and less healthy.

California plans to regulate and place parameters around HDHPs.

AB977 (Nava) would allow state agencies to better regulate health plans that have high out-of-pocket costs. Plans could be denied if they place too high of a financial burden on the consumer or exclude preventive care.
AB2281 (Chan) would cap deductibles at $5,000 for an individual and $10,000 for a family. It would also limit copayments to no more than 30 percent of a procedure. Chan’s bill would also require plans to provide cost and quality information to consumers, otherwise, be disqualified.

Please urge lawmakers and the governor to support AB977 and AB2281 to allow California to better monitor high deductible health plans.

Letters, calls, faxes and advocacy are needed to protect health care. For information, contact Hanh Kim Quach, health care policy coordinator, Health Access California at 916.497.0923 x 206.