A revolution in healthcare has taken without many people even noticing the changeover into 2009. This significant change took place without the help of government healthcare agencies, media outlets, or or professional politicians. The switch is from traditional comprehensive health plans to leave her health savings accounts.
While many presidential candidates were proposing health care reform many doctors, insurance agents, HR departments, and insurance companies had already come up with a plan and implemented what could be the answer to your healthcare affordability challenges. Those individuals and organizations are taking advantage of a simple and affordable health insurance option that became available in 2003. - high deductible health plan (HDHP) combined with a health savings account (HSA).
If you're currently purchasing health insurance for yourself or others you will immediately see the value of this combination, compared to overpriced comprehensive insurance. This option has become a quiet resolution, starting with self-employed doctors and insurance agents and is now spreading throughout the business community.
When you combine HDHP and HSA small businesses and large corporations have a new affordable option to offer their employees for health protection. While many do not have an employer provided health insurance option, HDHP HSA option gives those who are self-employed and affordable way to secure themselves against catastrophic injury and illness. This option even can be used by the government for a new system which would distribute health care costs, without hassle and bloated bureaucracies for regulating, pricing, and policing each aspect of healthcare.
So how does it work. An HDHP is a health insurance policy that begins paying for medical care after a high deductible has been met. A "high deductible" is defined as starting at approximately $1,100 and going higher depending on the price you or your employer are willing to pay for coverage. In this way a HDHP is much more like real "insurance" in that it will typically only be used for catastrophic illnesses or injuries and not for routine care. So how do routine and non-catastrophic doctor visits get paid. That's where the Health Savings Account (HSA) comes in. An HSA is a type of bank account that any person or employer can open. Money can be deposited into this HSA tax free by an employer, the individual, the government, or any combination of the three. In all cases the individual is the one who owns the bank account and can spend that money on almost any healthcare expense they wish. Regardless of who put it there, the money in the HSA always belongs to the individual and it never expires.
If a complete government takeover of the healthcare industry can be avoided then widespread use of HDHPs and HSAs will eventually bring the era of managed care and comprehensive medical insurance to an end, taking with it the tremendous havoc it has brought to our nation with its massive insurance bureaucracy, complicated insurance plans, skyrocketing prices, and restrictions on both patients and doctors. Market forces would return to most of healthcare, sparking a rise in competition for prices, quality, and innovation as doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies all compete for healthcare dollars that patients themselves control free from the artificial price inflations and extra payroll costs caused by comprehensive insurance. The complexity of modern health insurance would be replaced with a nearly unimaginable return to simplicity.
Ending managed-care and comprehensive medical insurance would be simple with the HDHP HSA option. the option would also eliminate the havoc brought to our nation with massive health-care bureaucracies, complicated insurance plans, skyrocketing prices, and the restrictions put on patients and doctors. Patients could then control their healthcare costs. market forces would then cause a rise in competition for price, while at the, and the innovation of doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies as they would be competing for the health care dollar. Patients could free themselves from artificial price increases and extra payroll costs from comprehensive insurance. Government takeover of healthcare could be avoided with the use of HDHPs and HSAs. this simple change would allow for a more simplistic healthcare system.
This combination of HDHP and HSA has the potential to tear down the restrictive bureaucracy and escalating costs of our current healthcare model and completely revolutionize the way healthcare in America is funded and accessed. The results would be more freedom, lower costs, less bureaucracy, and more people insured - a winning solution for citizens, businesses, and the nation.
More information about HSAs can be found at the U.S. Department of the Treasury website http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/public-affairs/hsa/faq.shtml. - 15683
While many presidential candidates were proposing health care reform many doctors, insurance agents, HR departments, and insurance companies had already come up with a plan and implemented what could be the answer to your healthcare affordability challenges. Those individuals and organizations are taking advantage of a simple and affordable health insurance option that became available in 2003. - high deductible health plan (HDHP) combined with a health savings account (HSA).
If you're currently purchasing health insurance for yourself or others you will immediately see the value of this combination, compared to overpriced comprehensive insurance. This option has become a quiet resolution, starting with self-employed doctors and insurance agents and is now spreading throughout the business community.
When you combine HDHP and HSA small businesses and large corporations have a new affordable option to offer their employees for health protection. While many do not have an employer provided health insurance option, HDHP HSA option gives those who are self-employed and affordable way to secure themselves against catastrophic injury and illness. This option even can be used by the government for a new system which would distribute health care costs, without hassle and bloated bureaucracies for regulating, pricing, and policing each aspect of healthcare.
So how does it work. An HDHP is a health insurance policy that begins paying for medical care after a high deductible has been met. A "high deductible" is defined as starting at approximately $1,100 and going higher depending on the price you or your employer are willing to pay for coverage. In this way a HDHP is much more like real "insurance" in that it will typically only be used for catastrophic illnesses or injuries and not for routine care. So how do routine and non-catastrophic doctor visits get paid. That's where the Health Savings Account (HSA) comes in. An HSA is a type of bank account that any person or employer can open. Money can be deposited into this HSA tax free by an employer, the individual, the government, or any combination of the three. In all cases the individual is the one who owns the bank account and can spend that money on almost any healthcare expense they wish. Regardless of who put it there, the money in the HSA always belongs to the individual and it never expires.
If a complete government takeover of the healthcare industry can be avoided then widespread use of HDHPs and HSAs will eventually bring the era of managed care and comprehensive medical insurance to an end, taking with it the tremendous havoc it has brought to our nation with its massive insurance bureaucracy, complicated insurance plans, skyrocketing prices, and restrictions on both patients and doctors. Market forces would return to most of healthcare, sparking a rise in competition for prices, quality, and innovation as doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies all compete for healthcare dollars that patients themselves control free from the artificial price inflations and extra payroll costs caused by comprehensive insurance. The complexity of modern health insurance would be replaced with a nearly unimaginable return to simplicity.
Ending managed-care and comprehensive medical insurance would be simple with the HDHP HSA option. the option would also eliminate the havoc brought to our nation with massive health-care bureaucracies, complicated insurance plans, skyrocketing prices, and the restrictions put on patients and doctors. Patients could then control their healthcare costs. market forces would then cause a rise in competition for price, while at the, and the innovation of doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies as they would be competing for the health care dollar. Patients could free themselves from artificial price increases and extra payroll costs from comprehensive insurance. Government takeover of healthcare could be avoided with the use of HDHPs and HSAs. this simple change would allow for a more simplistic healthcare system.
This combination of HDHP and HSA has the potential to tear down the restrictive bureaucracy and escalating costs of our current healthcare model and completely revolutionize the way healthcare in America is funded and accessed. The results would be more freedom, lower costs, less bureaucracy, and more people insured - a winning solution for citizens, businesses, and the nation.
More information about HSAs can be found at the U.S. Department of the Treasury website http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/public-affairs/hsa/faq.shtml. - 15683
About the Author:
Dr. Eric Stamper, O.D. is a Hendersonville, Th Contact Lens Specialist and owns Visionary Eyecare Center. Dr. Eric Stamper received his optometry degree in May of 2007 from Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, where he graduated with honors in the top 10 percent of his class.
