Released on = March 4, 2006, 8:09 am

Press Release Author = Benefits Boutique

Industry = Small Business

Press Release Summary = Hopes of health insuance pricing sanity fading as insurers
raise rates as much as traditional health insurance plans.

Press Release Body = FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dallas, Texas
3/03/06


Health Savings Accounts (HSA) have been high on the Bush domestic agenda. HSAs
offer low premiums and tax incentives in exchange for a high deductible plan with no
doctor visit or prescription copay benefits. In theory, these plans make
individuals \"health care shoppers,\" and cause us to shop for the best care and
rates.

Mike Chapman is the president of www.BenefitsBoutique.com, a nationwide online
health insurance agency and a proponent of health savings accounts. But he sees the
hope and promise of HSAs as a meaningful way to control health care cost inflation
is dimming. Health insurance companies are raising the rates on individual HSA
plans as much as \"copay\" health plans.

\"I\'ve recommended HSAs to my clients because I believed in them, says Chapman.\" \"A
year ago clients loved the health insurance quotes from HSAs. But a year later,
many HSA clients have seen as much as a twenty to twenty five per cent increase in
their health insurance premiums, even though they have not filed a single insurance
claim.\"

Health insurance companies lump individual policies together when planning their
price increases for the next year. The cost of insurance claims are spread across
all of their policy holders. So HSA policy holders who paid more out of their own
pocket and filed few insurance claims get \"rewarded\" with the the same increase as
the someone who visited their doctor often and only paid a $30 copay.

To make matters worse, many health insurance companies increase their rates to
existing individual policy holders faster than the rates they advertise to attract
new policy holders. \"What looked like a great health insurance quote for my clients
when they signed up for a HSA plan doesn\'t look so good a year later. Now they are
looking at basically paying the same rate they paid a year ago, except now they
have a huge deductible and no copay,\" says Chapman.

\"Who can afford fifteen to twenty five per cent rate increases?\" asks Chapman.
\"With the numbers of uninsured Americans at an all time high, HSAs could be but a
blip in the road to a private health insurance meltdown. All HSA plans may be
doing is delaying the inevitable crisis for another Administration to deal with.\"

Chapman doesn\'t agree with proposals for tax subsidies for individual HSA health
insurance plans. \"Extra tax subsidies for HSAs do nothing to control health care
costs and health insurance inflation, and could in fact increase rate inflation,\"
says Chapman. \"HSAs are a great concept for adding personal accountability to
control health care costs. But unless health insurance companies offer the
equivalent of a \"good driver discount\" for no or low claims, then personal
accountability cannot be sustained.\"

#####

Arrange an interview with Michael Chapman for more insights into this topic:

Michael Chapman
mtchapman@BenefitsBoutique.com
http://www.BenefitsBoutique.com
Direct Line: (888) 398-6246
Other helpful information can be found at: http://www.BenefitsBoutique.com.


Web Site = http://www.BenefitsBoutique.com

Contact Details = Michael Chapman||6505 W. Park Blvd., Suite 306-312||Plano ,
75093||$$country||||888-398-6246||mtchapman@BenefitsBoutique.com||http://www.BenefitsBoutique.com