This paper examines HSA and HRA assets, account balances, and rollover amounts, using data from the 2011 EBRI/MGA Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey (CEHCS), sponsored by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Mathew Greenwald & Associates. It then examines differences and trends in...

As the cost of both chronic care and diagnostic imaging continue to rise, it is important to consider methods of cost containment in these areas. Therefore, it seems important to study the relationship of self-referral for imaging and the cost of care of chronic illnesses. Previous studies,...

ABSTRACT/SYNOPSIS. Medicine is technologically dynamic but fiscally inertial. Major change in the health sector takes time. Responses to macroeconomic shocks are subject to lags of varying lengths, from several years to many decades. There may also be feedback and reverse causality, as when...

In 2003, the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) added outpatient prescription drugs as an optional benefit. When the program was originally enacted, it included a controversial feature: a coverage gap, more commonly known as the “donut hole.” The...

Many health care reform proposals expand insurance coverage without fundamentally changing the structure of health insurance. The stay-well plan used in Mendocino County, California, since 1979, offers an alternative insurance structure that provides direct incentives for consumers to control...

This paper examines HSA and HRA assets, account balances, and rollover amounts. It examines the types of individuals likely to have an HSA or HRA. It then examines differences and trends in account balances by demographics, income, contribution levels, and engagement in an individual’s own...

Health care is neither "a necessity" or "a luxury" but "both" since the income elasticity varies with the level of analysis. With insurance, individual income elasticities are typically near zero, while national health expenditure elasticities are commonly greater than 1.0. The debate over...

Considerable attention in the U.S. has been focused on the development of high deductible insurance plans, largely with the expectation that consumers facing the full price of medical care will make more efficient consumption choices. While moving to higher deductibles should reduce spending...

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the loss of health insurance results in changes in health behavior that reduces the risk or severity of illness. While ex ante moral hazard is nearly always mentioned as a potential consequence of health insurance, it is equally as often noted that ex ante moral...

This paper examines HSA and HRA assets, account balances, and rollover amounts. It examines the types of individuals likely to have a consumer-driven health plan (CDHP). It then examines differences in account balances by demographics, income, contribution levels, and engagement in an...