Will High-Deductible Health Insurance Plans Become The Norm?
The survey reported that the number of employees covered by high-deductible health plans, and the number of companies offering the plans, jumped this year, “as employers seek more affordable coverage options and are potentially seeking to shift increased costs to workers.”
This year, 17 percent of covered workers were enrolled in such plans, compared with 13 percent last year and just 8 percent in 2009. And 23 percent of firms offering health benefits offer them, up from 15 percent last year. The plans, which typically are paired with health savings or reimbursement accounts, generally carry lower premiums for workers, but have higher annual deductibles than other plans. Plans that can be used with health savings accounts, for instance, must have a deductible of least $1,200 for an individual and $2,400 for a family.
Mr. Altman described the shift to high-deductible plans as a “quiet revolution” that was redefining employer-based health insurance in the United States, from a service that offered wide-ranging, comprehensive coverage to one that offered limited coverage: “The nature of what we call health insurance is changing, without a great deal of analysis or debate.”
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