Subject: txt hcare -
Five years ago, Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) of Indiana requested that a consumer-directed health insurance option, or Health Savings Account (HSA). In the first year some 4 percent signed up for it; this year, over 70 percent of Indiana's 30,000 state workers chose it, by far the highest in public-sector America.
What Indiana and independent health care experts at Mercer Consulting have found, says Daniels, is that individually owned and directed health care coverage has a startlingly positive effect on costs for both employees and the state. In Indiana, for example:
- State employees enrolled in the consumer-driven plan will save more than $8 million in 2010 compared to their coworkers in the old-fashioned preferred provider organization (PPO) alternative.
- In the second straight year in which state employees have been forced to skip salary increases, workers switching to the HSA are adding thousands of dollars to their take-home pay (even if an employee had health issues and incurred the maximum out-of-pocket expenses, he would still be hundreds of dollars ahead).
The state is saving, too, says Daniels:
- In a time of severe budgetary stress, Indiana will save at least $20 million in 2010 because of high HSA enrollment.
- Mercer calculates the state's total costs are being reduced by 11 percent due solely to the HSA option.
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