More companies are choosing consumer-directed health plans as a way to deal with rising health care costs, according to Kaiser Health News. Jonathan Cohn claims that these companies are to blame if their plans don’t meet as-yet-unwritten federal regulations set to take effect in 2014. So Cohn and President Obama think it’s a good thing that in three years you could lose health insurance that saves money on premiums and puts you in charge of your own care, you might lose it in three years anyway.
More employers are adding high-deductible plans to the mix of health plans they offer or using them to replace their traditional plans. In 2009, about 12 percent of employers offered workers a consumer-driven health plan, and many more said they plan to do so, according to an Employee Benefit Research Institute analysis. Bigger companies were most likely to offer them: More than 40 percent of companies with more than 10,000 workers did so. But the plans also have fans among small business owners, because of their lower costs.
The plans are likely to become more popular with time. “As costs rise, it makes the high-deductible plan more attractive, because it’s one way to keep premiums down,” says Paul Fronstin, director of EBRI’s health research and education program.
Jim Geraghty has said all of President Obama’s promises have an expiration date. This is just another example – if you liked the insurance you had the day health care reform passed, you could keep it. If you like the new policy you have purchased since that day, however, you lose.
