Friday, May 06, 2011
Tweet[IWS] BLS: HIGH DEDUCTIBLE HEALTH PLANS: A GROWING OPTION IN PRIVATE INDUSTRY [4 May 2011]
IWS Documented News Service
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Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau
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BLS PROGRAM PERSPECTIVES, vOL. 3, ISSUE 4
HIGH DEDUCTIBLE HEALTH PLANS: A GROWING OPTION IN PRIVATE INDUSTRY [4 May 2011]
http://www.bls.gov/opub/perspectives/program_perspectives_vol3_issue4.pdf
[full-text, 4 pages]
[excerpt]
To respond to higher health care costs and provide coverage for more workers, employers are offering a new type of health
plan: high deductible health plans (HDHPs).
HDHPs were specifically created to have higher deductibles and lower premiums than traditional health plans and provide, at minimum,
catastrophic health coverage. Traditional plans have copayments for doctor visits and prescription drugs. HDHPs require the insured
person to make payments up to a defined annual deductible amount before the insurance plan pays for any benefits. The Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) sets the minimum deductible for what qualifies as an enroll in a health savings account (HSA), a tax-advantaged medical
saving account that helps participants save money to pay for medical expenses.
This issue of Program Perspectives highlights HDHP data for private industry workers, including participation and comparisons
between deductibles for traditional plans and HDHPs. Access data for HSAs are provided for private industry workers.
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Stuart Basefsky
Director, IWS News Bureau
Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell/ILR School
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Telephone: (607) 262-6041
Fax: (607) 255-9641
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu
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