Why health savings accounts aren't the fix Republicans hope for [View all]

Republicans facing voter ire over spiking health premiums are resurrecting one of their favorite ideas: Give people power to pay for medical care on their own, with tax-free dollars in individual health savings accounts.

The GOP is toying with the idea of taking federal subsidies that currently help people buy Affordable Care Act insurance and diverting some of the money into individuals’ HSAs, although passing legislation without help from Democrats is a tall order with Republicans’ slim Senate and House majorities.

But health economists say the vast majority of these individual accounts - already used by tens of millions of Americans - do not contain sufficient money to pay for serious health expenses. Even boosting them with new federal contributions would not build enough reserves to pay for expensive care for an emergency or major illness if needed, they say.

“There’s a place for health savings accounts to augment insurance and fill things out around the edges, but it can’t be the core insurance product,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a health economist who directs the American Action Forum, a conservative think tank.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/why-health-savings-accounts-aren-192637529.html