More Than Six Million Enrolled In Health Savings Account Plans

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 02 May 2008 - 5:00 PDT

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More than 6.1 million Americans are covered by Health Savings Account (HSA)-eligible insurance plans, a 35 percent increase since last year, a new census released by America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) found. HSAs were authorized starting in January 2004. Since then, AHIP has conducted a periodic census of its members participating in the HSA plan market.

"Employers and individuals across the country and across the age spectrum are choosing HSA plans, which are now an important part of the portfolio of coverage options offered by health plans," said Karen Ignagni, President and CEO of AHIP.

Key findings from the census include:

- There was an increase of approximately 1.6 million Americans enrolled in an HSA plan since January 2007. Previous censuses found that 4.5 million were enrolled in January 2007, 3.2 million were enrolled in January 2006, and 1.0 million were enrolled in March 2005.

- 30 percent of individuals covered by an HSA plan were in the small group market, 45 percent of individual covered by an HSA plan were in the large-group market, and the remaining 25 percent were in the individual market.

- HSA products accounted for 31 percent of new coverage issued in the small-group market. Individual market consumers selected HSA products for 27 percent of their new purchases of health insurance.

- HSA plan enrollment as a percentage of individuals with private coverage is estimated to be the highest in Minnesota (9.2 percent), Louisiana (9.0 percent), Washington, D.C. (8.7 percent), Vermont (7.5 percent) and Colorado (7.1 percent).

For more information about the 2008 census, please visit http://www.AHIPResearch.org.

http://www.ahip.org