Designed to cover consumers’ out-of-pocket health care costs, HSAs are offered in tandem with qualified high-deductible plans. The Employee Benefits Research Institute estimates that in 2014, there were about 13.8 million HSA accounts holding more than $24 billion in assets. Nearly four out of five of those accounts were opened in 2011 or later.
Most health care economists expect the brisk adoption of HSAs to continue. Benefits consultancy Mercer predicts that 36 percent of employers with 10 to 499 employees will offer HSA-eligible plans by 2017; 66 percent of employers with more than 500 workers are expected to do the same. Moreover, the consultancy estimates that by 2017, 18 percent of larger employers will offer high-deductible plans as their only option.
This is good news for benefits brokers looking for a way to add value to voluntary benefits – using an approach that that employers and employees may not have considered. To better understand how voluntary policies can benefit HSA account holders, though, we must look at how savers are using their HSAs.
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Nick Thornton
Nick Thornton is a financial writer covering retirement and health care issues for BenefitsPRO and ALM Media. He greatly enjoys learning from the vast minds in the legal, academic, advisory and money management communities when covering the retirement space. He's also written on international marketing trends, financial institution risk management, defense and energy issues, the restaurant industry in New York City, surfing, cigars, rum, travel, and fishing. When not writing, he's pushing into some land or water.
