From USA Today:President Bush's expected call for expansion of health savings accounts in Tuesday's State of the Union address will likely stoke the debate over the accounts.
Under the law, the accounts must be coupled with health insurance policies that carry at least a $1,050 annual deductible for individuals or $2,100 for families. They allow people to set aside money, tax free, to cover medical costs. This year, the maximum allowable deposit is $2,700 for individuals and $5,450 for families. Bush wants to increase those contribution levels.
The accounts are seen by proponents as part of a larger effort to create an "ownership society" in which financial responsibility for retirement and health care costs shifts more to individuals and away from government and employers.
Proponents, who include some of Bush's economic advisers, say the system of spending accounts paired with high-deductible policies will make people more judicious users of medical care because they will have to pay a greater portion of the costs themselves.
Critics say many Americans are already struggling to pay for health care, so promoting higher-deductible polices will leave the poor and the chronically ill in worse shape. Critics, who include the Commonwealth Fund and Consumers Union, also fear the accounts will attract mostly healthy people, leaving sicker and more expensive patients in traditional insurance, whose costs will then rise. Overall, they say, the accounts won't save the nation money on health care.
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